California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday night on a popular liberal podcast that the U.S. should reconsider its military support for Israel, a marked evolution for a politician who traveled to Israel less than two weeks after the Oct. 7 terror attacks in 2023 and who said in an October interview that he would not consider eliminating U.S. military aid to Israel.

“Do you think, looking down the road, that the United States should consider maybe rethinking our military support for Israel?” Jon Favreau, the co-host of “Pod Save America,” asked Newsom during an event promoting the Democratic governor’s new book.

“It breaks my heart because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don’t think you have a choice,” Newsom said in response. He also said in the conversation with Favreau and co-host Tommy Vietor, which came amid the joint U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran, that Israel could “appropriately” be described as an apartheid state. 

The “Pod Save” hosts have been some of the leading voices in the Democratic Party hostile to Israel and pro-Israel groups, boosting progressive primary candidates including Graham Platner in Maine and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, who made criticism of Israel central to their campaigns.

Further, Newsom seemed to make the argument that military support for Israel comes at the expense of social welfare programs in the U.S.

“To say this is in America’s interest at a time when affordability is at crisis levels, where you have an administration who literally got elected saying this is exactly the opposite of what they would ever consider doing, the fact that we are in this now regional war, all these proxies,” Newsom said, before trailing off into a conversation about corruption in the Trump administration.

On Thursday, Newsom will appear in Portsmouth, N.H., for another book talk — a location sure to raise eyebrows because of the state’s importance in the presidential primary contest. He’ll be interviewed by Jack Cocchiarella, a self-described “progressive political YouTuber” who also frequently bashes Israel. Cocchiarella said in a post on X promoting the event that they will be discussing Israel. Earlier this week, the podcast host called Israel “a terrorist state that threatens and kill [sic] Americans.” 

Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for Newsom, told The New York Timeson Wednesday that he “believes in Israel’s right to exist — and its right to defend itself. Period.” 
Newsom “is calling out a difficult truth,” added Gardon, saying that President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are “taking Israel down a course that threatens the safety of Israel — a democracy and America’s closest Middle East ally — as well as Israelis and American Jews.” Gardon declined to comment further to JI.

Newsom’s move away from military support for Israel is a shift even from his recent positions. In October, during an interview with the “Higher Learning” podcast, Newsom said he would not support ending U.S. military aid to Israel.

“No, I’m not prepared to say that I would support a blanket exemption for military support of Israel. That said, I’ve been very vocal in my opposition to Bibi Netanyahu,” said Newsom. 

He touted his decision in December 2023 to send humanitarian aid to Gaza, while also defending Israel’s right to exist.

“I am sitting here on your behalf, you’re a taxpayer,” Newsom said on the podcast, “as the only governor in the United States that sent a field hospital to Gaza and got it in through a third party country, and is disgusted by what’s happened in Gaza as a human being, as a father, who sees these children and how this war has been perpetuated by Bibi Netanyahu. I also have deep respect for the right of the State of Israel to exist and defend itself. And I thought the attack by Hamas was a terrorist attack, and we have to be clear about that as well.” 

Newsom is widely considered a 2028 presidential contender, and he has been shifting his public stances on Israel to the left in recent months in response to questions from progressive interviewers. 

In the days immediately after Oct. 7, Newsom lit the state capital in blue and white and unequivocally condemned Hamas’ actions. Less than two weeks later, he added a one-day visit to Israel onto a pre-planned trip to Asia. 

“Despite the horror, what I saw and heard from the people of Israel was a profound sense of resilience. A commitment to community and common purpose, especially in these most difficult of times,” Newsom said afterward. He first traveled to Israel in 2008, the first sitting mayor of San Francisco to do so, on a trip organized by the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation. 

Jewish allies of Newsom’s in California told Jewish Insider they disagreed with his choice of using the word “apartheid” but said his comments reflected sentiments familiar to those held by many pro-Israel Democrats who disagree with Netanyahu’s actions.

“I heard what he was saying as sort of a frustration, as, ‘I don’t want it to go there,’ but I’m hearing a lot of concerns and frustrations when he’s saying ‘it breaks my heart,’” said Andrew Lachman, a Culver City school board member and the former president of California Jewish Democrats.

Sam Lauter, a Democratic donor and activist in San Francisco, said he “would have preferred [Newsom] not use those words.”

“I don’t want the word apartheid to come up. I don’t want someone to position themselves as being open to the idea of cutting off military aid to Israel,” Lauter said. “I wouldn’t say that his position has changed or evolved. I think it’s just that the more that folks see Netanyahu and the Netanyahu government proceed down the path that they have proceeded down, the more you’re going to hear people say, this is where he’s put us.” 

During his October interview with the “Higher Learning” podcast, Newsom was asked to discuss his views on AIPAC after Van Lathan, the show’s host, said he would not vote for any candidate who accepted money from the pro-Israel lobby. At the time, Newsom appeared flummoxed and did not give a substantive answer.

“It’s interesting. I haven’t thought about AIPAC. And it’s interesting, you’re, like, the first to bring up AIPAC in years, which is interesting. It’s not relevant to my day to day life,” Newsom said.

Two months later, he was asked a similar question by Cocchiarella.

“I’ve never received a dollar from them in my entire political career. So that’s sort of absolute. So I’ve had an opinion on that going back decades now,” said Newsom. 

AIPAC only started spending in political races in 2022, and they have never donated to state candidates, only to congressional campaigns. But Newsom doubled down and compared AIPAC to other groups deemed politically toxic to Democrats.

“I don’t take tobacco money, oil money. I’ve never taken AIPAC money. I mean, there’s certain absolutes that are the lines that have been drawn for decades for me,” he said.

Lauter, who used to be involved with AIPAC and now sits on the board of Democratic Majority for Israel, called Newsom’s comments on AIPAC “immensely unfortunate.” 

“I’m disappointed that AIPAC has become such an easy target, even for folks that we should consider friends,” Lauter told JI on Wednesday.

Israel expanded its war effort against Iran to southern Lebanon on Monday after Iranian proxy Hezbollah launched rockets and drones at Israel overnight.

“We have launched an offensive campaign against Hezbollah,” Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF’s chief of staff, said in a situational assessment on Monday. “We are not only operating defensively — we are now going on the offensive as well. We must prepare for many prolonged days of combat ahead.”

The war against Iran and Hezbollah “requires strong defensive readiness and sustained offensive readiness, operating in continuous waves while constantly utilizing opportunities,” Zamir said.

On Sunday, Zamir also spoke of Israel’s “close cooperation with our most important partner — the United States of America. We are working in coordination with CENTCOM, with AFCENT, CENTCOM’s Air Force, and there is undoubtedly tremendous force here.”

Hours after Hezbollah launched rockets and drones at Israel at about 1 a.m. Monday, the IDF carried out strikes against dozens of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and as far north as Beirut that extended into the morning. Targets included senior Hezbollah terrorists, command posts, infrastructure and a vehicle carrying operatives from the Sh’ia militia’s elite Radwan force. 

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem “decided on the attack under pressure from Iran [and] is from this moment a marked target for elimination.”

The IDF will “act forcefully against Hezbollah,” Katz added, “while continuing to advance the primary objective: crushing and defeating the Iranian terror regime and neutralizing its capabilities in Operation Lion’s Roar in order to remove the threats against the State of Israel and enable the citizens of Iran to rise up against the regime and overthrow it.”

The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson issued evacuation notices for 53 villages in southern Lebanon.

“The IDF had previously prepared for the possibility of Hezbollah joining the hostilities,” the military spokesperson’s office stated. “In the Northern Command, combat forces were significantly reinforced along the border with both defensive and offensive capabilities. This preparation enabled a rapid and robust counterattack while maintaining full operational protection across all scenarios.”

The expansion of the war to a second front followed a month of smaller IDF strikes in southern Lebanon, as Hezbollah continued efforts to rebuild after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and many other leading figures in the Iranian proxy group in late 2024.

As Operation Roaring Lion, as the IDF called its strikes on Iran, was launched on Saturday, the IDF called up 70,000 reservists to bolster its forces in all sectors, including the northern border, as well as Central Command, focusing on counterterrorism activity in the West Bank, and Southern Command, to defend the Yellow Line in Gaza and protect residents of southern Israel.

The IDF continued intercepting Iranian missiles on Monday, including over Jerusalem, where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was targeting the Prime Minister’s Office and the home of Air Force Commander Tomer Bar.

Israel confirmed that on the first day of the war, it eliminated 40 commanders, including the Iranian Armed Forces’ Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi, whose predecessor was eliminated by the Israeli Air Force last year. 

In addition, the IDF targeted the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, killing Sayed Yahya Hamidi, deputy minister of intelligence for ‘Israel affairs,’ who directed attacks on Jews around the world, and Jalal Pour Hossein, head of the espionage division, among others. 

The Intelligence Ministry reported directly to Iran’s supreme leader and was also a central tool through which Iran monitored citizens and provided intelligence for the violent suppression of protests. It has long been under U.S. sanctions. 

The IDF said that, in addition to missiles, the air force and navy have intercepted dozens of Iranian drones launched toward Israel. 

Late Sunday and early Monday, Iranian missiles struck Jerusalem twice, including one that landed right outside the walls of the Old City. 

The second strike, in a residential neighborhood, injured five, Magen David Adom reported.

On Sunday, 10 were killed as a result of missile strikes, mostly in a barrage that decimated a residential area in Jerusalem suburb Bet Shemesh.

Since the beginning of Operation Roaring Lion, there have been 12 fatalities in Israel. MDA reported 228 injuries.

Also Monday, Israel’s Energy Ministry instructed a halt on gas production at the Leviathan platform in the Mediterranean Sea. 

President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a military campaign against Iran has earned unexpected support from Western leaders who have otherwise sparred with Trump, particularly on trade policy. Canada and Australia, both of which are led by liberal parties, robustly backed the strikes that began on Saturday morning. 

“We support the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent Iran continuing to threaten international peace and security,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement on Saturday. 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking to reporters during a trip to India, also threw his support behind the U.S.: “Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security,” he said.

Meanwhile, three powerful European allies known as the E3 — France, Germany and the United Kingdom — were more circumspect after the military campaign began, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz calling on Saturday for nuclear negotiations to resume. 

But by late Sunday, as Iran doubled down on its campaign of retaliation against American and Western assets across the Middle East, the E3 nations inched toward support for Washington with a statement strongly calling on Iran to cease its “indiscriminate and disproportionate missile attacks.”

“We call on Iran to stop these reckless attacks immediately. We will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source,” the E3 leaders said. “We have agreed to work together with the U.S. and allies in the region on this matter.” 

Good Wednesday afternoon!

This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.

It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.

📡On Our Radar

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Ahead of the third round of U.S.-Iran negotiations taking place in Geneva tomorrow, Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that President Donald Trump “has a number of other tools at his disposal” besides diplomacy to ensure “the craziest and worst regime in the world” does not obtain nuclear weapons, following on the president’s remarks during last night’s State of the Union calling Iran “the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror”…

In response to Trump’s comments, where he also said Iran was developing advanced ballistic missiles and had killed 32,000 protesters, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei tied Trump to the “law of propaganda coined by Nazi [chief propagandist] Joseph Goebbels.”

“This is now systematically used by the U.S. administration and the war profiteers encircling it, particularly the genocidal Israeli regime … Whatever they’re alleging in regards to Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of ‘big lies,’” Baghaei wrote on X…

White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who is leading Iran negotiations alongside Jared Kushner, reportedly told AIPAC members at the group’s summit in Washington yesterday that any deal reached with Iran should not have a “sunset clause,” as the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was criticized for. 

“We start with the Iranians with the premise that there is no sunset provision. Whether we get a deal or not, our premise is: you have to behave for the rest of your lives,” Witkoff told the group, according to Axios. He said talks are currently focused only on the nuclear issue, but if they are successful, the administration would look to hold additional talks on Tehran’s missile program and support for terror proxies…

Satellite photos analyzed by the Associated Press appear to show U.S. ships that typically dock in Bahrain as part of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet have moved out to sea. The 5th Fleet similarly scattered its ships during the U.S. strikes in Iran last June…

Dutch airline KLM announced a suspension of flights between its hub in Amsterdam and Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport starting March 1 until further notice, saying in a statement that it is currently “not commercially or operationally feasible for KLM to operate flights to Tel Aviv.” It’s the first airline to pause flights amid the current unrest with Iran…

On the campaign trail, Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George vowed to reject the “Zionist lobby” in a questionnaire seeking the endorsement of the Metro D.C. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports, a category that the DSA said includes AIPAC, Democratic Majority for Israel, Christians United for Israel and J Street.

Referencing her appearance at an event with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington in December, Lewis George assured the DSA she “disagree[s] with the JCRC on a number of issues,” including its opposition to describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide and its “definition of antisemitism that criminalizes dissent, and their attacks on activists.” 

Ron Halber, CEO of the JCRC, told JI, “As far as I’m concerned, [the DSA’s questionnaire] is an antisemitic manifesto. They are making the price of their endorsement the social exclusion of Jews”…

Illinois state Sen. Laura Fine, a Democrat running for an open Illinois House seat, unapologetically championed her backing for Israel in a position paper obtained by JI’s Marc Rod, amid attacks from anti-Israel activists and groups over her support for the Jewish state and backing from pro-Israel supporters.

Fine described Israel in the paper as “more than just a strategic ally, it is a beacon of democracy in one of the world’s most volatile regions,” as she and some of her primary opponents, including Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and far-left activist Kat Abughazaleh, are set to participate in a televised debate tonight…

The U.S.-led Board of Peace released a video today laying out its vision for Gaza. The board’s goal by Year 3 is to fully rebuild the southern Gazan city of Rafah and have Gaza “connected to the world through an Abrahamic gateway, linking it with Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and extending to India and Europe.” By the board’s 10th year, it said, Gaza will be “self-governed,” without specifying who will oversee the enclave and how Hamas will be removed from power… 

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana awarded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the newly established Medal of the Knesset, the highest honor of the body, after Modi’s address there today. His remarks were warmly received by members of Knesset and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also in the chamber…

Following Israel’s recognition of Somaliland’s independence in December, Jerusalem accepted the appointment of Mohamed Hagi as the first Somaliland ambassador to the Jewish state (and its first fully accredited ambassador anywhere in the world). Hagi “was a member of the inner circle of officials who promoted the establishment of relations between Israel and Somaliland,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, and vowed that a reciprocal Israeli ambassador “will soon be appointed”…

Former Harvard President Larry Summers will remain on leave from his teaching position at the Ivy League school for the duration of the academic year, at which point he will retire, Harvard announced today, after files released by the Department of Justice showed Summers maintained a relationship with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein after the financier had been convicted of prostitution involving a minor…

⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a preview of Fox Nation’s new docudrama on King David, offering a dramatic reenactment of the biblical coming-of-age story of the Jewish leader.

White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will hold discussions with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva, mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi.

California Jewish groups including the JCRC Bay Area, the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles and Jewish California, which rebranded today from its previous name of JPAC, are hosting a forum for candidates running for governor, as Gov. Gavin Newsom reaches his term limit. Participating candidates include former presidential contender Tom Steyer, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, all of whom are Democrats, as well as Republican commentator Steve Hilton. 

Stories You May Have Missed

PUSHING BACK

Moderate Democrats mock notion that Kamala Harris lost because she wasn’t tougher on Israel

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, representing a swing district: ‘The idea that the vice president lost every swing state because she wasn’t more extreme on this issue is laughable’

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

CAPPELLO’S CAMPAIGN

Democrat John Cappello brings military experience in Israel to race against Mike Lawler

The Air Force veteran, who served for six years at the U.S. Embassy in Israel, said Israel should continue to make efforts toward peace

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

Good Tuesday afternoon!

This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.

It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.

📡On Our Radar

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Previewing his State of the Union address tonight, where it remains to be seen if he will make any announcements on Iran, President Donald Trump told reporters, “Iran wants to make a deal more than I do, but they just won’t say the sacred phrase: ‘We won’t build nuclear weapons,’” signaling that the two sides are still at an impasse ahead of the third round of negotiations scheduled for Thursday…

Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed the congressional Gang of Eight, the bipartisan set of leaders advised on classified matters by the executive branch, this afternoon to provide an update on Iran, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly joining the discussion. The White House did not brief the group before striking Iran last June, drawing ire from Democrats…

Ahead of the meeting, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told C-SPAN about potential Iran strikes, “Closed-door briefings are fine, but the administration has to make its case to the American people on something as important as this”…

Around a dozen U.S. F-22 stealth fighter jets departed from the U.K. today to be deployed at an Israeli Air Force base in the south of the country, as over 150 aircraft are being moved to the region. Military experts told The Washington Post that the “assets being assembled are indicative of a multiday campaign without a ground invasion”…

The Coast Guard is investigating a swastika drawn at its primary recruit training center in New Jersey, where Coast Guard commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday quickly flew to address recruits and staff about the incident. Lunday recently came under fire from Congress, and had his confirmation delayed, over a change in Coast Guard policy that downgraded the swastika from a prohibited hate symbol to “potentially divisive,” which was eventually walked back.

Regarding the recent incident, Lunday said in a statement to The Washington Post, “Anyone who adheres to or advances hate or extremist ideology — get out. Leave. You don’t belong in the United States Coast Guard and we reject you”…

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) is pushing for legislation to require an affirmative congressional vote prior to the U.S. reaching any nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports, following a notification from the administration to Congress indicating that it is moving toward a deal that could allow Riyadh to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.

The notification procedures, which do not include specific terms of a potential deal, suggest that Saudi Arabia will not be required to agree to more intrusive International Atomic Energy Agency inspections or “gold standard” safeguards — which would require Saudi Arabia to agree not to enrich or reprocess nuclear material — used for the U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement with the United Arab Emirates…

The Justice Department sued the University of California today under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination, alleging that the UCLA campus created a “hostile work environment against Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff.” 

During campus anti-Israel protests in 2024, the DOJ said, “the University allowed antisemitic harassment to continue unabated for days” and “has ignored, and continues to ignore, gross and repeated violations” of time, place and manner restrictions on student protest. The department further claimed Jewish and Israeli faculty at the school have been physically threatened, ostracized, harassed, forced to take leave and assaulted…

The New York Times details efforts by New York’s business community and Democratic establishment to organize and promote the moderate wing of the party in response to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rise to power. Some of the individuals involved, including former Gov. Andrew Cuomo allies Phil Singer and Steven Cohen, are considering forming PACs, watchdog groups, lobbying campaigns and more…

New York’s Working Families Party endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) yesterday over Mamdani’s objections. The mayor has been backing Assemblymember Claire Valdez, who, like Mamdani, is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a vocal critic of Israel, and he had lobbied the WFP to endorse her or to stay out of the race. WFP’s director, Jasmine Gripper, told the Times, “At the end of the day, Zohran is an individual who gets to weigh in as an individual”…

A new poll from the University of New Hampshire found oyster farmer Graham Platner with a commanding lead among likely Senate Democratic primary voters, outdistancing Gov. Janet Mills by 34 points, with the primary less than four months away. In a general election matchup with incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Platner leads Collins by 11 points, while Mills and Collins are neck-and-neck…

Khalid Turaani, executive director of the Ohio branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), testified at the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee last week against a bill to codify the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, where he claimed that Israel operates the world’s largest human skin bank and harvests the skin from deceased Palestinians. “And if I call them Nazis,” Turaani continued, “your law is going to punish me.”

The Anti-Defamation League’s Ohio River Valley office condemned Turaani’s speech, saying that the “antisemitic organ harvesting myth plays on the blood libel trope, which has spurred the torture, murder, and expulsion of Jews for centuries”…

The U.S. Embassy in Israel announced that, as part of the government’s “efforts to reach all Americans,” the embassy will be providing consular services for one day only at several locations across Israel and the West Bank, including Ramallah and the Jewish settlement of Efrat…

⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for the highlights from President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, taking place at 9 p.m. ET tonight, as all eyes are on possible U.S. military action against Iran.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Israel tomorrow, where he will be greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before addressing the Knesset. In the evening, the two leaders will have dinner at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel. Read JI’s interview on Modi’s visit with Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar.

The New York City Council will hold its first hearing on Council Speaker Julie Menin’s bill aiming to create “buffer zones” around houses of worship to protect from disruptive protests. The bill’s language was updated last night to remove the original 100-foot figure, which had reportedly emerged as a point of concern for the NYPD.

Congressional candidates from Illinois’ 9th District, where pro-Israel spending is boosting state Sen. Laura Fine and attacking Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, will hold a debate on local news. 

Stories You May Have Missed

SHIFTING STANCE

Sue Altman pivoting on Israel as she runs in safely Democratic N.J. district

The progressive activist ran as a pro-Israel candidate in a neighboring swing district, but is now walking back her support as she runs to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

PRAIRIE STATE OF PLAY

Raja Krishnamoorthi emerging as the strongest ally of Jewish voters in Illinois Senate race

Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton seems to be running to the congressman’s left on Israel, even as Rep. Robin Kelly is the most outspoken critic of Israel in the race

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) and 25 Democratic co-sponsors introduced a bill on Monday that would implement wide-ranging new conditions and restrictions on U.S. aid to Israel.

The Ceasefire Compliance Act would require the administration to assess and report to Congress every 90 days on whether Israel is complying with the October 2025 ceasefire agreement in Gaza, including halting military operations and bombing campaigns.

The legislation does not appear to contain exceptions for the strikes Israel has taken in retaliation for Hamas’ own violations of the ceasefire deal, nor mention its targeting of individual Hamas leaders.

Under the terms of the legislation, if Israel does not meet the conditions included in the law, the U.S. would be banned from selling or transferring any U.S. military systems to Israel for use in Gaza or the West Bank, any further transfers would be subject to a specific agreement by Israel that the weapons would not be used in Gaza or the West Bank and the administration would be required to reach an agreement with Israel that U.S.-origin systems already in Israel’s possession would also be banned from use in Gaza or the West Bank.

Those restrictions would remain in effect until Israel is in compliance with all conditions. The legislation establishes an end-use monitoring group within the administration to monitor whether U.S.-provided systems are in use in Gaza or the West Bank.

The legislation includes language guaranteeing that U.S. defensive assistance to and intelligence sharing with Israel, as well as provision of missile-defense systems to Israel, are exempt from the conditions. The bill would sunset after five years.

Other conditions would require Israel to work to implement President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan; allow humanitarian aid into Gaza; cooperate in the establishment of a temporary Palestinian government and ultimately a Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank; take “material steps” to prevent settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank; and ban any forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, annexation of Gaza or “de facto or de jure annexation” of any part of the West Bank.

The Israeli government, and a broad swath of Israeli society, oppose the establishment of a Palestinian Authority government in Gaza given the group’s ongoing payments to the families of terrorists, among a raft of other concerns.

“As one of the United States’ most important allies, Israel must ensure that its policies and the use of U.S. military assistance align with American values, interests, and the law,” Casten said in a statement. “That starts with requiring compliance with the October 10, 2025, ceasefire agreement and the steps laid out in the 20-point plan, curbing settler violence, and rejecting annexation in the West Bank.”

The legislation includes a limited presidential waiver of the conditions for transfers and sales “vital to the national security of the United States.” The president would be required to provide a detailed justification to Congress 15 days before invoking such a waiver explaining why it is necessary and unavoidable.

“This bill redefines the system of US military aid to Israel, transforming it from a blank check to an accountability-based system that advances US strategic interests in the Middle East, aligns with American values, enhances Israel’s security, and protects Palestinian civilians,” a release by Casten’s office about the bill states. “Through thorough oversight and tough enforcement mechanisms, it makes clear that actions undermining shared U.S. and Israeli interests and values will have consequences.”

The bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Veronica Escobar (D-TX), Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Becca Balint (D-VT), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Ro Khanna (D-CA), John Garamendi (D-CA), Don Beyer (D-VA), Jill Tokuda (D-HI), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Valerie Foushee (D-NC), Mike Thompson (D-CA), Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), Doris Matsui (D-CA), Derek Tran (D-CA), Emily Randall (D-WA), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Mark Takano (D-CA), Troy Carter (D-LA), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Joaquin Castro (D-TX).

The legislation also includes specific language emphasizing that the administration has no authority to transfer U.S. funds to the Board of Peace — after Trump pledged a $10 billion U.S. commitment last week — or to provide the Board of Peace with authorities that “[supersede] the role or authorities of the United Nations.”

One source familiar with the situation told Jewish Insider that J Street, which is backing the bill alongside New Jewish Narrative and Foreign Policy for America, is making the legislation its top priority. The group is holding a conference in Washington later this month.

“The Ceasefire Compliance Act puts into law the common sense principle that American weapons cannot be used by the Israeli government in Gaza and the West Bank in ways that fundamentally violate American values and directly contravene U.S. interests,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said in a statement. “US assistance — whether aid or arms — should never come as a blank check. The CCA will ensure the Israeli government is held to agreements it has signed and abides by the ceasefire, allows a Palestinian governing council to take control of Gaza, and cannot annex the West Bank.”

Though the bill is unlikely to pass Congress under Republican control, it could provide a model for Democrats critical of Israel shy of the terms of the Block the Bombs Act and other efforts to impose a full offensive arms embargo on the Jewish state.

Good Monday afternoon!

This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.

It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.

📡On Our Radar

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

As rumors abound about the possibility and timing of U.S. strikes on Iran, the State Department ordered the evacuation of non-essential personnel and their families from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. “Based on our latest review, we determined it prudent to reduce our footprint,” a State official told Fox News…

Nearby, amid the buildup of U.S. military assets in the region, American refueling and cargo planes were spotted at Ben Gurion Airport…

President Donald Trump denied reports that Pentagon officials, namely Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, are raising concerns about striking Iran, writing on Truth Social this afternoon, “General Caine, like all of us, would like not to see War but, if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is his opinion that it will be something easily won.”

“He has not spoken of not doing Iran, or even the fake limited strikes that I have been reading about, he only knows one thing, how to WIN and, if he is told to do so, he will be leading the pack,” Trump said of Caine, while alluding to the potential breadth of military action against Iran… 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back his visit to Israel, originally scheduled for this weekend, to March 2, The Jerusalem Post reports, days after the next round of U.S.-Iran negotiations in Geneva on Thursday…

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), a leader on foreign policy among Democrats in Congress, told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs that he heard “pretty stark early warning signs of some challenges where core allies do not share our priorities” on a potential Iran strike during his recent trip t0 Europe, which included stops at the Munich Security Conference, along with meetings in Ukraine and Moldova with top European diplomats.

Coons laid out what he hopes to see from the president: “A) Consult Congress. B) Make a case to the American people about why this is in our national security interest. C) Clarify what on earth he’s planning with this Board of Peace … And D) If he’s going to work with close allies to ramp up pressure to try and achieve something at the negotiating table, he should work with close allies”…

Anthony Driver Jr., a union organizer and candidate in Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, doubled down on his recent repudiation of AIPAC, despite previously having little public record on Israel policy issues. Following a press conference last week where Driver, who is running against AIPAC-backed Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, denounced the pro-Israel group, he returned donations from major Democratic Party donor Michael Sacks over the finance executive’s ties to AIPAC.

Sacks, who was a major backer of former President Barack Obama and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said in his reply, “It is truly sad there is so much anti Israel sentiment and outright Jew hate that Anthony found himself in this position. I can only hope that the electorate rejects hate in all forms”…

As more details emerge about Rep. Tony Gonzales’ (R-TX) alleged affair with a staffer who later committed suicide, a poll commissioned by the campaign of Brandon Herrera, Gonzales’ opponent, shows the congressman trailing Herrera by a whopping 24 points among likely GOP primary voters. The story, which entered the news cycle right as early voting kicked off, could catapult Herrera, a social media influencer with a history of antisemitism, to the Republican nomination and on to Congress…

Investigators at the cryptocurrency giant Binance found last year that about $1.7 billion had been sent from two accounts to Iranian entities with links to terror groups, The New York Times reports, even after Binance pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws in 2023 and vowed to prevent sanctioned actors from accessing its platform. Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who was jailed for his role in the saga, in October 2025…

The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival backtracked in its defense of a juror selected for a judging panel who had posted antisemitic and anti-Israel content online, whom it had stood behind even after the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta announced it was withdrawing its funding and support of the event over the pick. 

The festival changed its tune yesterday, saying it is “first and foremost, a Jewish institution” and has “a responsibility, particularly at this fraught time, to stand firmly against antisemitism and to affirm the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.” It said it would review its “organizational processes and policies, including those related to antisemitism, BDS, and cultural boycotts”…

The French Foreign Ministry has moved to block U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner’s access to government officials after he declined to appear for a summons by Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot today, which was issued after the U.S. Embassy reposted comments by Trump about a far-right French activist who was killed in a clash with far-left protesters. It was Kushner’s second summons, after his first last year when he accused the French government of not adequately combating antisemitism…

⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at Sue Altman’s shifting views on Israel as the formerly pro-Israel congressional candidate is now running in New Jersey’s more heavily Democratic 12th Congressional District.

We’ll be watching for mention of President Donald Trump’s thinking on Iran as he delivers the annual State of the Union address tomorrow night. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver the Democratic response.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “advancing national security through commercial diplomacy” with Jacob Helberg, under secretary of state for economic affairs, who recently told JI that he hopes the Pax Silica initiative, which he leads, “will pave the way for peace and economic integration” in the Middle East.

Australia’s royal commission on antisemitism, formed after the Hanukkah terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, will hold its first public hearing, though no testimony or evidence will be heard.

Stories You May Have Missed

OVERTON WINDOW

Jewish Democrats alarmed about whether their party will remain welcoming

Former Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning: ‘There is no doubt that we are living through very difficult times for American Jews’

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

BIG TENT SHABBAT

State Dept. Shabbat dinner draws UAE, Saudi ambassadors and senior Trump officials

The dinner was hosted by Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. antisemitism special envoy

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Thursday rejected the suggestion from some in the Arab world that the deaths of civilians in Gaza does not align with Christian values. Graham made the comments during an appearance on an episode of the “On The Record” podcast with Hadley Gamble, while discussing how Israel’s war in Gaza had impacted regional stability in the Mideast and delayed normalization efforts with the Saudis.

“I just don’t buy that at all, because what did we do in World War II? Did we think for one minute about starving the Germans? Did we bomb every city into smitherreens?” Asked if that meant he was comparing Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on the Jewish state to how the U.S. responded in World War II, Graham responded affirmatively.

“This is an absolute, existential threat to the Jewish people. What happened on October the 7th was 1,200 people were slaughtered, raped and murdered, and filmed by radical Islamists who would kill every Jew if they could.”

Gamble then pressed Graham on Israel “flattening Gaza,” which the South Carolina senator said he took no issue with.

“Just flatten it. We flattened Berlin. We flattened Tokyo,” Graham said. “Were we wrong to drop an atomic bomb to end the Japanese reign of terror? Were we? In my view, if I were Israel, I would have probably done it the same way. Without military victory, there is no hope of breaking radicalism. We flattened Germany. We flattened Japan.”

“It’s a TV war. We didn’t have TV in World War II. The behavior of the United States was to pursue total destruction of the enemy. That was our behavior. Take Tokyo and Berlin,” he added. “Those people who are trying to say this is just another conflict, it’s not another conflict. It’s existential to the Jewish state.”

Graham, who is in the Middle East for meetings with Israeli, Emirati and Saudi officials, also criticized Saudi Arabia for “attacking the United Arab Emirates pretty viciously for being in the Abraham Accords” and questioned assertions that the kingdom’s ongoing dispute with the Emiratis was solely based on differences in Sudan and Yemen. 

“Saudi Arabia is now moving backward. They’re attacking the United Arab Emirates pretty viciously for being in the Abraham Accords,” Graham said. “There is no good reason for this. You can have disputes about Sudan and Yemen, but they’re basically declaring war.”

Asked if he believed the dispute “is all about Israel,” Graham replied: “I don’t know what this is about. I know the consequences. [Mohammed bin Zayed], the president of the United Arab Emirates, I’m going to meet him, you could not ask for a better partner. You could not ask for a better partner than the United Arab Emirates. They’ve stuck with the Abraham Accords through Gaza.”

In a post on X after his meeting on Thursday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Graham praised the kingdom while acknowledging his concerns about achieving normalization with Israel. 

“The Crown Prince is dealing with the aftereffects of October 7 like all leaders in the region, particularly with the tremendous loss of life in Gaza,” Graham wrote. “Having said that, his vision for the region is for conservative Islam to coexist — with tremendous economic opportunity — for the people of Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, and the entire world. He is the first Arab leader in modern history that’s expressed a vision not only for the faith, but for economic empowerment that is simply stunning when absorbed, and will set the tone for the region for generations to come.”

Graham criticized Gulf state opposition to regime change in Iran over fears about potential fallout as politically weak.

“That is a short-sighted view of the problems you face over here,” he said. “You’ve got domestic problems, so do I. I’ve got domestic problems. It’s probably better for me to be at home than it is here, so I don’t have a lot of tolerance anymore for people having to make uncomfortable decisions, because I have to make them all the time.”

Pressed on Saudi concerns about oil prices and regional instability, Graham said all of the Gulf states needed to “suck it up.”

“I’m telling everybody over here to suck it up. You’ve got to suck it up to bring about real change. Real change doesn’t come without sacrifice. Now, this region is going to change one way or the other,” Graham said. “There are two scenarios. … The inflection point is weeks away, not months away. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I haven’t slept, because it’s either going to go really good or really bad.” 

Later Thursday, Graham warned in a post on X that the U.K. should not deny the U.S. the ability to use British military bases to attack Iran. 

“If it turns out to be true that Britain is denying the United States the ability to use British bases against Iran if there is a necessity for an attack – it would be beyond surprising,” Graham tweeted. “I’ve been a military lawyer most of my adult life. What they’re saying about the status of Diego Garcia, the joint US-UK military base, is a huge question.”

“To my friends in Britain, sitting this one out puts you on the wrong side of history and is yet another example of how much our alliances throughout Europe have degraded,” the tweet concluded.

Good Thursday afternoon!

This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.

It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.

📡On Our Radar

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

President Donald Trump used the occasion of the first meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington today to announce significant monetary and troop commitments from the U.S. and other countries to stabilize Gaza, as well as lay out a timeline for military action against Iran, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

The pledges included $10 billion from the U.S. and $7 billion from several Middle Eastern countries for Gaza’s reconstruction, as well as commitments to provide troops and police to the U.S.-led International Stabilization Force. (The Guardian reports the White House is currently exploring plans to build a 5,000-person military base to house the ISF in southern Gaza.)

On Iran negotiations, Trump said in his remarks, “Now we may have to take it a step further or we may not. Maybe we are going to make a deal [with Iran]. You are going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days.”

He later told reporters on Air Force One, “Ten, 15 days, pretty much maximum.” Remember: Last June, Trump said he would decide whether to take action against Iran within two weeks, and carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities two days later…

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has reportedly not given approval to Washington to use the joint U.S.-U.K. base on Diego Garcia island for a strike on Iran, as Trump said yesterday he is considering. London is concerned that a U.S. strike from the shared base, which the U.K. must grant permission to use, could implicate it in violating international law…

Trump also offered praise for Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, during his Board of Peace remarks, despite widespread criticism of Doha’s backing of Hamas and platforming of anti-Israel actors.

“His excellency, Prime Minister Al Thani of Qatar, just a great and highly respected man,” Trump said. “I always say he needs a public relations agency because you do so much good, and they have you down as evil, and you’re not evil. You help us so much and you’re such a good ally”…

Meanwhile, Hamas is entrenching itself further in Gaza, repositioning its loyalists in government and paying salaries across the enclave, according to Reuters. Hamas has said it is willing to hand power over to the Palestinian technocratic committee established by the U.S. and led by former Palestinian Authority official Ali Shaath, but as one Palestinian source told the outlet, “Shaath may have the key to the car, and he may even be allowed to drive, but it is a Hamas car”…

Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), who recently lost the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, called AIPAC’s attacks against him in the race “bizarre in several ways,” writing in an op-ed today that he has “no problem identifying as a Zionist” and calling on Democratic leaders to collectively “refuse [AIPAC’s] support, instead of letting it pick off candidates one by one”…

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) withdrew her endorsement of Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller, the front-runner in Illinois’ 2nd District Democratic primary, over Miller’s backing by groups that are reported to be affiliated with AIPAC, though the pro-Israel group hasn’t endorsed her and neither AIPAC nor its super PAC are publicly spending any money in the district.

“Illinois deserves leaders who put voters first, not AIPAC or out-of-state Trump donors,” Schakowsky told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I cannot support any candidate running for Congress who is funded by these outside interests”…

Ahead of a hearing next week on New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin’s proposed 100-foot ban on protests around houses of worship, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said today that he had the NYPD review the legality of the measure, “and I can tell you, my police commissioner has expressed concerns about that proposal”…

Three officials appointed by Mamdani to administration posts are co-founders of a group that blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks two days after they took place, the Washington Free Beacon reports.

The group, the Muslim Democratic Club of New York (MDCNY), was founded by Faiza Ali, now commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs; Aliya Latif, now executive director of the mayor’s Office of Faith-Based Partnerships; Ali Najmi, tapped as chair of the mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary; and anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour.

On Oct. 9, 2023, the MDCNY posted on X, “Many NYers are feeling pain, fear, and anger after the horrific events in the Holy Land this weekend. Especially as the Israeli apartheid regime have forced millions of Palestinians in Gaza to live under occupation for decades and an open air prison since 2007.” The group went on to condemn “elected officials offering support for Israeli occupation’s rampant violence as it openly declares & enacts its intent to engage in mass violence and genocide against Palestinians,” well before Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza had begun…

The Forward profiles Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman as she runs for mayor with a unique ideology: Raman is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, but has also been vocally supportive of Israel. She called DSA’s statement blaming Israel for the Oct. 7 attacks “unacceptably devoid of sympathy” and rejects the BDS movement, but was also condemned by the local Jewish community for introducing a ceasefire resolution in June 2023…

⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a preview of the AIPAC Congressional Summit, which is kicking off Sunday amid the group’s increasing involvement in midterm election races.

President Donald Trump is expected to meet with governors at the White House tomorrow, though the meeting will no longer be held under the auspices of the National Governors Association, as is done annually, after the White House declined to invite Democratic Govs. Jared Polis of Colorado and Wes Moore of Maryland to a black-tie dinner on Saturday.

We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!

Stories You May Have Missed

FULOP’S FIGHT

Former Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop brings the fight against antisemitism to NYC’s business community

As the new head of NYC’s leading business advocacy group, Fulop said he’s preparing for ‘this experiment of what it means to be an executive in a DSA world’

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

TEXAS TROUBLE

How an anti-Israel Republican with an antisemitic history could get elected in Texas

An unfolding scandal involving Rep. Tony Gonzales could cost him his seat at the hands of a far-right social media influencer

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

President Donald Trump used the occasion of the first meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington on Thursday to announce significant monetary and troop commitments from the U.S. and other countries to stabilize Gaza, as well as lay out a timeline for military action against Iran.

“I want to let you know that the United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace,” Trump said at the United States Institute of Peace, where several foreign leaders gathered for the meeting.

The president also named, for the first time, which countries have agreed to make additional financial contributions to the reconstruction of Gaza: Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kuwait “have all contributed more than $7 billion toward the relief package,” Trump said. 

The meeting comes as the administration works to address several issues in the Middle East, including rising tensions with Iran. The U.S. has amassed a large collection of military assets in the region in preparation for a potential strike, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a nuclear deal. 

Trump said in his remarks, “Now we may have to take it a step further or we may not. Maybe we are going to make a deal [with Iran]. You are going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days.”
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One later in the day, Trump said, “I would think that would be enough time — 10, 15 days, pretty much maximum.” Last June, Trump said he would decide whether to take action against Iran within two weeks, and carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities two days later. 

During the meeting, Trump also called on Iran to “join” the board “on a path that will complete what we’re doing.”

“If they [Iran] join us, that will be great. If they don’t join us, that will be great too, but it will be a very different path,” the president said. “They cannot continue to threaten the stability of the entire region, and they must make a deal. Or if that doesn’t happen, I maybe can understand if it doesn’t happen, but bad things will happen.”

Trump also announced that several countries would contribute personnel to an International Stabilization Force tasked broadly with securing Gaza and upholding the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Morocco, Albania, Kosovo and Kazakhstan “have all committed troops and police to stabilize Gaza,” he said. Indonesia vowed prior to the meeting to also contribute personnel to the body’s mission. 

The president added that “Egypt and Jordan are likewise providing very, very substantial help, troops, training and support for a very trustworthy Palestinian police force. We think we’re getting some very good people on that police force.”

However, despite the announcements, questions remain over how effective the pledges will be. Hamas continues to maintain a presence in Gaza and has thus far refused to disarm or relinquish governing authority — a dynamic that could complicate reconstruction and stability efforts. Trump has not clearly defined the operational scope of the International Stabilization Force, including whether its members would be expected to confront Hamas directly or focus on traditional peacekeeping functions.

Despite those uncertainties, Trump still expressed confidence that Hamas would comply with disarmament commitments.

“[Hamas] made a promise, and they promised me they would get rid of their weapons. Looks like they’re going to be doing that,” Trump said, adding that if they do not, “they’ll be very harshly met.” Since announcing the Board of Peace, Trump has made similar threats to Hamas numerous times. 

He also said there are “two countries that want to go in and do a number on Hamas,” without specifying which countries, but added, “I really don’t think that’s going to be necessary, because [Hamas] they made a promise.” The ISF is not expected to play a role in countering Hamas. 

During his address, the president also took a moment to acknowledge the foreign leaders of member countries that had shown up to back the announcement, including offering praise for Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister. Despite widespread criticism of Doha’s ties to Hamas officials and support for the terrorist organization, Trump strongly defended the leader against accusations that he and his country are “evil.” 

“His excellency, Prime Minister Al Thani of Qatar, just a great and highly respected man,” said Trump. “I always say he needs a public relations agency because you do so much good, and they have you down as evil, and you’re not evil. You help us so much and you’re such a good ally.” 

Meanwhile, Trump signaled that he hopes to broaden the Board of Peace’s membership, though several leaders of major U.S. allies — including the United Kingdom, Germany and France — have indicated they do not plan to take part. 

Trump also withdrew an invitation previously extended to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney after the leader delivered remarks critical of the initiative at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos.

“So many of our friends in Europe are attending today, and we’re eager to have them become full members,” said Trump. “And we’ve had a great response from Europe. I’m excited to announce that Norway has agreed to host an event bringing together the board of peace.”

Trump also addressed the board’s relationship with the United Nations, amid questions about whether the new body is intended to complement or rival existing international institutions. He positioned the board as senior to the U.N., and that the two bodies would work “very closely.”

“We’re going to bring them back. I think the United Nations has great potential, really great potential. It has not lived up to potential,” said Trump. “The United Nations will be much stronger, and the Board of Peace is going to almost be looking over the United Nations and making sure it runs properly. But we’re going to strengthen the United Nations. We’re going to make sure its facilities are good. They need help, and they need help money wise. We’re going to help them money wise, and we’re going to make sure the United Nations is viable.” 

Good Wednesday afternoon!

This P.M. edition is reserved for our premium subscribers — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.

It’s me again — Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.

📡On Our Radar

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

President Donald Trump warned U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer not to relinquish control over Diego Garcia — an island in the Indian Ocean that hosts a joint U.S.-U.K. base, as the U.K. plans to transfer sovereignty of the larger island chain to Mauritius, while maintaining a 99-year lease on the base — because it may act as the launching pad for a U.S. strike on Iran.

“Should Iran decide not to make a Deal, it may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia, and the Airfield located in Fairford, in order to eradicate a potential attack by a highly unstable and dangerous Regime — An attack that would potentially be made on the United Kingdom, as well as other friendly countries,” Trump wrote on Truth Social…

Iran is also signaling its readiness for military conflict, The Wall Street Journal reports, including deploying Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval units to the Strait of Hormuz, launching cruise missiles along the coast, conducting a military exercise with a Russian warship near the USS Abraham Lincoln, testing air defense systems, hardening nuclear sites and cracking down once more on dissidents…

Israel, meanwhile, is preparing for its civilian infrastructure to be “a central arena” in a potential U.S.-Iran conflict, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports, as Home Front Command chief Maj.-Gen. Shay Klapper told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today. Committee Chairman Boaz Bismuth said, “There is not one [Israeli] who doesn’t ask himself several times a day when there will be a campaign against Iran. The entire population and home front are preparing”…

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) dispelled rumors, seemingly spread by Saudi media, that UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed was ill or even dying after meeting with him in Abu Dhabi today: “Not only is he alive, but he is also well and as sharp as I’ve ever seen him. To those powers that feel the need to attack MbZ and the UAE for doing the right thing — you do so at your own peril,” Graham said on X.

He also called MBZ’s decision to join the Abraham Accords and “to try to integrate the region with the whole world … one of the most consequential decisions any Middle Eastern leader has made.” Graham is now headed to Saudi Arabia where he will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom he recently told publicly to “knock it off” regarding the kingdom’s destabilizing activities in the region…

Democratic Texas state Rep. James Talarico raised $2.5 million in donations for his Senate campaign in the 24 hours after his interview on Stephen Colbert’s late-night show was reportedly quashed by CBS, Politico reports, as early voting in Texas kicked off yesterday ahead of the March 3 primary. 

CBS denied it had banned the interview, saying Colbert’s show “was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled,” which Colbert derided as a statement “written by — and I’m guessing for — lawyers”…

On the GOP side of the Texas Senate ballot, Attorney General Ken Paxton looks like the front-runner in his hotly contested primary against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX), despite the GOP establishment spending more than $60 million in attack ads against Paxton, Punchbowl News reports. (And the infighting goes further: Hunt said yesterday he filed criminal charges against a senior member of Cornyn’s campaign team for allegedly doxxing a member of his family.)

Trump told reporters last night that he still hadn’t decided which of the GOP candidates, if any, to endorse, saying, “I like all three of them actually. Those are the toughest races. They’ve all supported me. They’re all good. You’re supposed to pick one, so we’ll see what happens. But I support all three”…

Democratic Virginia state Del. Dan Helmer, a key architect of the state’s current redistricting effort, plans to enter the race for the 7th Congressional District that will be created if state voters approve a constitutional amendment to allow redistricting to proceed. 

Helmer, who is Jewish and the son of an Israeli immigrant, ran for the state’s 10th District in 2024 on a staunchly pro-Israel platform, telling JI at the time that calls for conditions on U.S. aid to Israel are “incredibly frustrating.” He became the target of late-stage ad campaigns, which their backers insisted to JI were unrelated to his support for Israel, and ultimately came in second in the Democratic primary…

Humain, Saudi Arabia’s state-sponsored AI company, invested $3 billion in Elon Musk’s xAI, the company announced today. The investment came just before Musk combined xAI with his SpaceX aerospace company, giving the Saudi firm a significant stake in the major U.S. government contractor…

⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye out in Jewish Insider for a look at how the emerging scandal involving Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) — whom the San Antonio Express News confirmed yesterday was engaged in an extramarital affair with a staffer who committed suicide — could catapult an anti-Israel Republican, who has posted videos featuring Nazi imagery, to Congress.

Our focus tomorrow will be the first meeting of the Board of Peace, which will bring several heads of state and senior ministers, including Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, to Washington. Read JI’s preview of the meeting. 

Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut will deliver what JFNA is calling the first “State of the Jewish Union Address,” ahead of the president’s State of the Union next week, from the organization’s Washington headquarters.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will hold a daylong hearing on antisemitism on college campuses, featuring legal experts, former administration officials, students and Jewish communal leaders, which include Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs; Kenneth Marcus, founder and CEO of the Louis D. Brandeis Center; Erin Beiner, J Street U director; and Kevin Rachlin, Washington director of The Nexus Project.

Stories You May Have Missed

MONIKER MEANING

Anger at ‘Epstein class’ bleeds into conspiratorial finger-pointing

Follow the language to its most extreme end, and what emerges is undiluted antisemitism

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

In North Carolina’s Research Triangle, pro-Israel voters at a loss

Rep. Valerie Foushee was backed by AIPAC, but has since turned against supporting Israel. Her Democratic opponent is a virulently anti-Israel activist

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

The largest global membership organization for social workers from around the world will vote next week on whether to expel Israel’s leading social work body, sparking a feverish advocacy campaign by Jewish and Israeli practitioners to urge members to vote against the measure. 

The vote by the International Federation of Social Workers is scheduled for Feb. 18, and it comes after several members in the IFSW complained that some Israeli social workers served in combat roles in the Israel Defense Forces during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. The IFSW alleges that military service violates social workers’ professional and ethical commitments to nonviolence. 

The Israeli Union of Social Workers — and its allies in the United States and Canada — argue that such a request ignores Israel’s mandatory draft policy, holds Israel to a different standard from other member nations and singles out the only Jewish state. The leader of the Israeli body said it would be “entirely unimaginable” for Israeli social workers to ask not to serve in combat, noting that it would come across as “elitist” and “mark our union as illegitimate in the eyes of both the government and the public.” 

“If we believed that removing the [IUSW] from the IFSW would promote peace, guarantee the rights and security of both nations — we ourselves would vote in favor,” IUSW’s chair, Inbal Hermoni, wrote in a letter urging countries to vote against the measure. “This is a noble goal. However, this is not the case.” 

The IFSW comprises 141 country members — including Russia, Iran and China — representing more than 3 million people. The only other country to ever face a similar punishment from the IFSW was South Africa, which was suspended during the era of apartheid rule. 

Last year, the IFSW voted to formally censure Israel — the second time the body had done so.

“This position was grounded in our ethical mandate: social workers are called to uphold human dignity, promote peace, and work for social justice. Active participation in combat contradicts these principles,” IFSW President Joachim Mumba, who is from Zambia, said last year.

Social workers, psychologists, doctors and other practitioners in the so-called “helping professions” have complained about antisemitism that they say has become normalized since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel — with double standards, anti-Zionist litmus tests and outright antisemitism now viewed as widespread and even acceptable among others working in those fields.

“This vote shouldn’t be seen in isolation. It’s a reflection of the systemic hostility towards Israel and towards Jews that have come to permeate these professional spaces,” said Guila Franklin Siegel, chief operating officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. “In fighting against this, we are fighting against a much bigger problem.”

Andrea Yudell, a therapist in Washington, told Jewish Insider on Thursday that voting to expel Israeli social workers “would effectively legitimize the hostility that we’ve been seeing in the field.”

A petition organized by several groups for Jewish therapists in the U.S. and Canada is urging the National Association of Social Workers and the Canadian Association of Social Workers — the two membership organizations in each country — to publicly oppose next week’s vote. 

“It imposes a nationality-based collective sanction, treating professionals as ethically suspect solely because of their national affiliation. No other national association is held to this standard,” the petition states. It has been signed by more than 11,000 people. Spokespeople for NASW and CASW did not respond to requests for comment. 

Several U.S. Jewish organizations are helping to circulate the petition and generate attention about the vote, which the Anti-Defamation League called “collective punishment.”

The issue, according to Jewish social workers, goes deeper than just professional drama among the practitioners. The spread of antisemitism in a field predicated on compassion could threaten to alienate or harm Jewish clients who turn to social workers to help meet their emotional and material needs.

“It’s not just the social workers themselves. It’s the people we are trying to serve. Those people. It’s unethical to them,” said Jennifer Kogan, a licensed clinical social worker in Washington, D.C. “Jewish clients are affected by this. They don’t feel safe.”

Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) called on Qatar to extradite Hamas operative Khaled Mashaal to the U.S., telling Jewish Insider on Wednesday that the leader has the “blood of Americans on his hands.”

Mashaal, who is under U.S. indictment on terrorism-related charges, appeared this past weekend at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, where he rejected the U.N. Security Council-backed plan for Gaza — a move that could further complicate U.S. efforts to advance Phase 2 of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace initiative.

“[Mashaal] is responsible for plotting the brutal massacre of Americans and Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023,” said Budd. “He should absolutely be extradited to the U.S. to face justice for his appalling crimes, not walking free to make public appearances in Qatar calling for Hamas to maintain its weapons and deny foreign intervention in Gaza.”

Budd also told JI that he wants to see Qatar crack down on the content disseminated by state-backed Al Jazeera.

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) said that he wasn’t familiar with Mashaal’s case in particular, but told JI that “one would like to see the that Qataris, who are supposed to be helping us out, participate or cooperate with us when we’re trying to bring terrorists to justice.”

Also featured at the forum was Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur, who was sanctioned by the U.S. in July 2025. Appearing by video, she told forum attendees that humanity has a “common enemy” in Israel.  

Middle East policy experts have cautioned that Qatar’s hosting of prominent Hamas and U.S.-sanctioned individuals allows those figures to circumvent U.S. restrictions, while promoting anti-American sentiment. The U.S. does not currently impose any direct sanctions on Qatar. 

“The Qataris are not inherently violating U.S. sanctions by inviting these guys to speak,” said Natalie Ecanow, senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. But, she added, “that’s not to say that this isn’t a latent disregard for U.S. sanctions by a country that’s supposed to be an ally and a partner.”

Ecanow said it is “not the first time” the Qataris have “thrown a finger in the face of American sanctions.” She noted Doha’s significant and long-term investment in Russia’s energy sector amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, as well as Qatar’s continual hosting of Hamas officials.

“The Qataris say that they were asked by the Americans to host Hamas. I have not seen documentation to prove that,” said Ecanow. “Hamas leaders have been living there for over a decade, and they amass multi-billion dollar fortunes.” 

Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former British diplomat and senior fellow at FDD, called the forum in Doha a “convention of enemies of America,” telling JI that the decision to give Hamas leaders a platform is “thoroughly obnoxious.” 

“The fact that this is happening doesn’t seem to me to be a significant evolution from what has been completely normal practice in Qatar throughout the year and during the Trump administration,” said Fitton-Brown. “How do you have a close relationship with Qatar when it evidently supports Hamas?”

Ecanow said Doha’s actions are especially troubling as a country that is supposed to be a U.S. partner. During Trump’s second term, the White House has worked to strengthen bonds with Qatar; the president visited last May and signed an executive order in September that regards “any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.” The two countries also finalized an agreement in October that allows Doha to build an air force facility in Idaho.

“These guys are supposed to be our allies,” said Ecanow. “It’s not just some random country that’s disrespecting U.S. sanctions. It’s a major non-NATO ally. It hosts the largest American military base in the region and invests billions of dollars in the U.S. education system.” 

Michael Jacobson, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the issue has become a “continuous source of angst and irritation in Washington circles.” He said that entities and individuals in Qatar are involved in “sanctionable activity.”

“I’m sure there’s still Qatari entities and individuals involved in trying to send money to Hamas,” said Jacobson. “It’s interesting that this administration has sanctioned many entities and pushed other governments to sanction entities tied to Hamas and its fundraising, meanwhile I don’t think there’s been any in Qatar that have been sanctioned over the last year.”

Jacobson described the issue as a “long-standing problem” and said the Trump administration’s inaction is “telling,” adding that there is “certainly stuff you could sanction if you wanted to.” However, he also argued that the U.S. relationship with Qatar does carry upside.

“It’s not like [Qatar is] doing nothing to help us,” said Jacobson. “They did serve as a liaison to Hamas, and they were able to, with the Turks, put pressure on Hamas to release the hostages and agree to a ceasefire.” 

Regardless, analysts suggested that the Trump administration is unlikely to alter its current approach to Doha.

“It would have to be something really headline-grabbing that would have the president look at it and say, ‘Hang on a minute,” said Fitton-Brown. 

“In my view, the nearest we’re going to get to [sanctions] is going to be some of the actions of the Qatari state in U.S. academia, where they’re putting money into universities with completely unacceptable conditions about not criticizing Qatar or appointing totally unsuitable faculty,” said Fitton-Brown.

He added that Qatar’s influence in education “crosses over with some of the anti‑Israel, anti‑Jewish, anti‑American manifestations on U.S. campuses that have certainly been a focus of concern from this administration.”

Even if Washington stops short of imposing new penalties, Fitton-Brown argued that the larger strategic question about Qatar’s role in the U.S. and the region remains unresolved.

“[Qatar] is not a friend,” said Fitton-Brown. “At best it’s a frenemy, and at worst it’s actually a systematic and insidious and sustained threat to America, its way of life, and its values.”

Several Republican senators expressed skepticism that the Iranian regime would negotiate in good faith with the United States on its nuclear program or on its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, as the administration pursues a diplomatic approach with Tehran following threats of military action. 

Some, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — and the Saudi defense minister, behind closed doors — have warned that, if the U.S. fails to act after President Donald Trump promised Iranian protesters that “help is on its way,” it would be a blow to the U.S.’ credibility in the Middle East and would strengthen the Iranian regime.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) expressed skepticism that the Iranians would engage sincerely or willingly give up their nuclear program in talks with the U.S., reported to be taking place in Turkey on Friday. 

“Wouldn’t that be great? It’d be great if they did. It’d be great if they got rid of their nuclear weapons,” Scott told JI. “Do I actually believe they’re going to negotiate in good faith? I don’t.”

Scott added that he was in favor of Trump taking action to support the protesters after promising to do so. “I think if you tell somebody you’re going to help them, you’ve got to help them,” the Florida senator said.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said he believes Trump “wants to avoid a war.” 

“I hope he’s successful,” Rounds added, but said that he is not optimistic that a viable deal is achievable. “I, personally, am really discouraged. I don’t think Iran really wants to negotiate a deal that would stop them from doing their terrorist activities, supporting terrorism around the area, and I don’t think they really want to give up their nuclear ambitions — although they would love to deceive us,” Rounds said.

“I wish [Trump] the best. I think he’s right in trying to do [make a deal]. I think that’s what we should be trying to do, but I don’t, I just don’t think we’re going to have much success,” he added.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said, “You can’t trust anything the ayatollah says at all.”

“I don’t know what the details are, so it’s hard for me to say what I’d like to see in [an agreement],” Mullin continued. “We all know that a nuclear Iran can never happen, so that’s got to be part of it. What else happens there? I don’t know, but I still go back to the fact that you can’t trust anything that the ayatollah or this current regime says.”

Mullin disagreed that not striking Iran would be seen as a shift in U.S. policy, describing the administration’s current approach as an extension of the president’s “peace through strength” policy.

“People respect that the president will always strike, or ratchet that up, when the time is right. He always wants diplomacy first, but he’s willing to use the strength part if he has to get to that point,” Mullin said. “And I think that’s what the president has positioned himself to do, but he has multiple options … so hopefully we’ll have a positive outcome without anyone getting hurt.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said that he’d want to see Iran surrender its enriched uranium, give up any future potential to obtain a nuclear weapon, stop funding terrorist groups and “start being a responsible member of a stable world order.”

He disputed the notion that a failure by the U.S. to launch strikes now would hurt the country’s credibility, arguing that any military strikes would be based on U.S. intelligence, which he does not have.

“It’s a lot more complicated. I mean, these folks are entitled to their opinion … obviously I hope the negotiations are successful,” Kennedy said. “Whether the president decides to go further is going to depend an awful lot on national and military intelligence, which I don’t have access to. We have the best spies in the world, and I don’t know what they’re telling the president, but it matters. So I can’t advise him if I don’t have the information from the intelligence community.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that any deal with the Iranians would need to include “a complete renunciation of nuclear arms and ballistic missiles that can reach Israel or our European allies.” He also said the regime’s crackdown on protesters would need to be “renounced.”

“They’re a country that continues to maintain ‘death to America, death to Israel.’ It is what it is,” Blumenthal said. “On a military front, there has to be a complete renunciation of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, and I think the brutal and inhumane tactics toward its own people have to be renounced.”

“I think we should do something, but it may not be a military strike,” he added. “There are a range of actions that we could take, [such as] to expand economic efforts and [implement] a stronger enforcement of sanctions. So between those, there are options.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who recently introduced a war powers resolution to block military action against Iran without congressional authorization, explained to JI that the resolution was a response to Trump’s comments about a potential attack and the current deployment of U.S. military assets to the Middle East.

Kaine said that the resolution would be eligible for consideration on the Senate floor next week, and that whether he calls it up will depend on how events develop and whether it will have the votes to pass.

“What really prompts me is when I think I can get the votes,” Kaine said. “Usually that means something beyond saber-rattling and it’s some kind of step, like in the international waters or Venezuela, we’re actually killing people — that clearly demonstrates we need to do this.”

Kaine also emphasized that the administration’s explanation for potential military action against Iran has shifted — citing both the protests and nuclear issue — and said he was concerned by a report last week that the administration may be considering some ground deployment of special forces into Iran.

“I’ve just got an awful lot of military families in Virginia who don’t want their kids to be in another war in the Middle East,” Kaine said.

The group behind a pro-Hamas demonstration near a Queens synagogue earlier this month and a series of other events targeting Jewish religious institutions has deep pockets — and deep roots, which criss-cross the country and link it to various extremist cells — according to publicly available tax filings.

The demonstrators who broke into chants of “Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here” outside Young Israel of Kew Garden Hills — and triggered outrage over New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s belated condemnation — were affiliated with an outfit known by multiple names: Palestinian Assembly for Liberation (PAL), Al-Awda (Arabic for “the return”) and Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC). But official filings with state and federal authorities reveal that the groups are different monikers of a single nonprofit operation, one whose revenue has exploded in recent years: from just $44,789 in 2022 to $451,903 in 2024, the most recent period for which filings are available.

The group also orchestrated the action targeting Park East Synagogue in Manhattan in November, and the “Flood Boro Park” rally that devolved into violence last February. On the day of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, the organization issued a full-throated endorsement of the assault.

“The Palestinian Assembly for Liberation and Al-Awda NY send their highest salutations to the Palestinian Resistance, the Freedom Fighters and Defenders of the indigenous Palestinian people,” a post on its Facebook page reads. “PAL and Al-Awda NY call on Palestinians globally to take their place in history, and to mobilize in all fora in support of the Liberation Operation.”

The group helped organize a Times Square protest the following day, alongside multiple far-left organizations. Much of the blowback the event received from New York officials centered on the participation of the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, of which Mamdani is and was a member. 

However, materials promoting the demonstration show that its staging received support not just from PAL/Al-Awda/PRRC but also from the People’s Forum, a Manhattan-based arm of a global network financed by Beijing-based tech mogul Neville “Roy” Singham. Singham and his wife, Jodie Evans, have poured their massive fortune into advancing disinformation supportive of the Chinese government and its allies, Russia and Iran. The People’s Forum also hosted Al-Awda’s national conference in 2022, which featured speakers from the DSA BDS Working Group.

Social media and blog posts reveal that PAL/Al-Awda/PRRC has also worked closely with Evans’ organization CODEPINK, known for its tactics of disrupting Capitol Hill hearings and political events, and for its pro-China and pro-Iran activism. PAL/Al-Awda/PRRC has also long partnered with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and its affiliate, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition, which provides staff to the Singham network. All of these groups have been involved in the Shut It Down 4 Palestine protest campaign, as well as in the 2024 encampments at Columbia University.

PAL/Al-Awda/PRRC also has ties to Samidoun, a group identified by Israel, Germany, Canada and the United States as a fundraiser and affiliate of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has been designated as a terror group by the U.S. for decades. PAL/Al-Awda/PRRC and Samidoun have cross-promoted and participated in each other’s events for years.

Further, a booklet for a 2023 “People’s Tribunal” on the Al-Awda website identifies Samidoun co-founder Charlotte Kates as “a member of Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition,” and archived versions of a now-deleted page listing PAL/Al-Awda/PRRC’s national board identified Kates as the group’s “Communications/Secretary” from 2021-2023. These pages also reveal that Nerdeen Kiswani, the founder of Within Our Lifetime and an outspoken defender of militant group violence, served as PAL/Al-Awda/PRRC’s “Youth Representative” in these same years. During that same period, Kiswani was a student at CUNY Law School, and delivered a speech at the school’s 2022 commencement in which she alleged that she had “been facing a campaign of Zionist harassment by well-funded organizations with ties to the Israeli government and military.” 

The national board also includes attorney Lamis Deek, who has publicly praised Hamas, the PFLP, and Iran’s Al-Quds intelligence force — and who officially launched the “Palestinian Assembly for Liberation” with other Al-Awda organizers in 2021.

The PFLP and Hamas are not the only terror organizations with which PAL/Al-Awda/PRRC and its leaders have shown affinity. The Anti-Defamation League discovered one of the group’s self-identified founders, Abbas Hamideh, lauded Hezbollah on his Twitter account.

Tax documents show PAL/Al-Awda/PRRC at present has just two officers on its board. The organization’s chair is Amani Barakat, part of a prominent business, real estate and philanthropic dynasty based in Southern California. The late family patriarch, Adil Barakat, was a leader in the Arab American Press Guild and the United States Organization for Medical and Educational Needs, a relief organization centered on Middle Eastern affairs.

PAL/Al-Awda/PRRC’s treasurer and only other listed executive is Anas Amireh, a Miami-area realtor who has lectured at Florida International University.

Barakat, Amireh and Deek did not respond to requests for comment, and messages left in an inbox and at a phone number listed on the Al-Awda website similarly received no answer.

The source of the group’s swelling resources isn’t clear from public information. It has received sizable contributions from “dark money” funds that mask the original contributor’s identity, as well as from the WESPAC Foundation, a New York-based charity that has come under fire for underwriting organizations that call for Israel’s destruction.

Labor for Palestine and U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel are also both affiliated with PAL/Al-Awda/PRRC, and operate out of its address in Coral Gables, Fla.

👋 Good Monday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to journalist Jason Zengerle about his new book about Tucker Carlson’s political evolution, and look at the wave of antisemitic and anti-Israel messaging coming from Saudi Arabia in recent weeks. We spotlight White House advisor Josh Gruenbaum’s position as a key player in U.S. diplomacy, and look at the role that the United Auto Workers union is playing in anti-Israel activist efforts. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Jennifer Mnookin, Morris Katz and Marc Shaiman.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by JI Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with assists from Danielle Cohen-Kanik and Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.

What We’re Watching

• Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day tomorrow, Meta, UNESCO and the World Jewish Congress are convening a discussion at the U.N. today in New York focused on the role that technology can play in Holocaust preservation efforts.
• Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs is hosting the second annual International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem. Speakers at the two-day confab include Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, the Department of Justice’s Leo Terrell, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut.
• Elsewhere in Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will host the annual lecture of the Jabotinsky Institute at the President’s Residence tonight, delivered this year by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
• The IDF, acting on new information from Hamas, is conducting an operation in northern Gaza to locate the remains of Ran Gvili, who was killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
• The Saudi Real Estate Future Forum kicks off today in Riyadh. Former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry are slated to speak, as is far-right commentator Tucker Carlson.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV HARKOV

Anti-Israel and antisemitic messages from Saudi regime mouthpieces and state-sanctioned media have increased in recent weeks, as Riyadh has pivoted away from a more moderate posture to an alignment with Islamist forces, such as Qatar and Turkey.

Over the weekend, prominent Saudi columnist Dr. Ahmed bin Othman Al-Tuwaijri wrote an article in a Saudi news site attacking the United Arab Emirates, with whom Saudi Arabia has been at odds in recent weeks, as “an Israeli Trojan horse in the Arab world … in betrayal of God, His Messenger and the entire nation.” He also wrote that “Israel is on a path to a rapid downfall and the umma [community of Muslims] will remain, God willing.” The column, published after weeks of anti-Israel and antisemitic messaging from Saudi-backed channels, sparked an uproar from Western voices, including the Anti-Defamation League, which condemned “the increasing frequency and volume of prominent Saudi voices … using openly antisemitic dog whistles.”

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said on the “Ask A Jew” podcast earlier this month that the Trump administration needs “to have a serious talk with” the Saudis. “I’m ringing the alarm; I’m breaking the glass,” he said. “I’m saying, listen, these guys are changing.”

In the past, “you only got these crazy terrorist clerics, the al-Qaida types … would be inciting against the Jews,” Abdul-Hussain said. “But this week, the [Saudi] state-owned media was inciting against the Zionist plan to partition the region and to divide the region. This is very new.” 

One possible reason for the turn in Saudi messaging is that Riyadh is “very afraid of Israel,” Edy Cohen, a research fellow at the Israel Center for Grand Strategy, told Jewish Insider, noting that it views recent Israeli actions as going against Saudi interests.

Cohen noted that “the Saudis and the Qataris led a campaign for Trump not to strike Iran. …[The Saudi leadership] heard [exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi] said the new Iran will normalize relations with Israel, and this drove the leadership crazy. Imagine Iran and Israel together … It’s their biggest nightmare.” Riyadh and Jerusalem are also at odds on Syria and Somaliland.

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

NEW ON THE SCENE

Josh Gruenbaum’s rapid rise from overseeing federal contracting to dealmaking on the world stage

Josh Gruenbaum’s Thursday started in Davos, Switzerland, at the signing ceremony to inaugurate President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. Gruenbaum walked onto the World Economic Forum stage where Trump sat, surrounded by world leaders, to hand the president the board’s first resolution — focused on the demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza — for him to sign. Hours later, Gruenbaum’s day ended at the Kremlin in Moscow, alongside White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and advisor Jared Kushner. Gruenbaum is a relatively new figure on the diplomatic scene. He started working with Witkoff and Kushner soon after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in October, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Trajectory: Since then, Gruenbaum has been spotted in meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Earlier this month, hewas named a diplomatic advisor to the new Board of Peace, which the Trump administration is reportedly envisioning as a replacement to the United Nations. It’s a somewhat surprising turn for Gruenbaum, whose expertise is not diplomacy or foreign policy but investment banking. But with his business background, Gruenbaum fits in with Witkoff and Kushner, both of whom come from the real estate world. His rise underscores how the Trump administration is reshaping the machinery of government by elevating loyalists with private-sector backgrounds and expanding their portfolios far beyond traditional lanes. 

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

HER WAY

Tahesha Way campaigns as close ally of Jewish community in pivotal N.J. special election

Campaigning in a crowded field for the New Jersey House seat recently vacated by newly inaugurated Gov. Mikie Sherrill, former New Jersey Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way is leaning strongly into her support for Israel and the state’s Jewish community, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

What she said: Speaking to JI last week, Way cited the rise in antisemitism that is leaving Jewish voters “terrified” as one of the reasons she’s running for office, alongside her concern about attacks on civil liberties, health-care access, the economy and immigration raids. She said that, going forward, it’s “really my fervor and my hope to continue my work on behalf of the Jewish community,” highlighting the work of the New Jersey-Israel Commission — which fell under her purview when she served as secretary of state — to increase trade between Israel and New Jersey as well as push back on antisemitism.

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

BISS’ BACKTRACK

Daniel Biss reversed position on aid to Israel after launching congressional campaign

Evanston, Ill., Mayor Daniel Biss, who has expressed support for cutting off some military aid to Israel during his campaign for Congress in the Chicago suburbs, had expressed support for continued aid to Israel earlier in the campaign, according to a position paper Biss himself released Friday amid scrutiny of his past communications with AIPAC, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

What it says: Biss said Friday that he had met with local AIPAC representatives to lay out his positions, but that he does not share AIPAC’s views and met with the group in the interest of open communication and in hopes “they might decide not to direct [their] MAGA donors to support [his primary opponent, state Sen.] Laura Fine.” The paper Biss released — which includes stances largely in line with those of other candidates AIPAC has endorsed — stated that Biss supports continued aid to Israel under the terms of the current U.S.-Israel memorandum of understanding, and that he would support another MOU in the future. Biss now supports efforts to impose an offensive weapons ban on Israel — a direct contradiction to the MOU.

Read the full story here.

Texas turnaround: Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for Senate in the state, has disavowed AIPAC and pledged not to take support from the group on the campaign trail. But in late 2019, he attended an AIPAC event alongside a major donor to his campaign, according to a contemporaneous Instagram post about the event posted by an AIPAC supporter, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

UNSEALED

Newly released memos reveal State Dept. concerns about basis for student deportations

State Department officials who were tasked with deporting foreign students accused of antisemitism and threatening American national security warned that the efforts may present free speech concerns, according to government documents that a federal judge released last week. The several hundred pages of previously sealed federal documents are connected to the ongoing deportation cases against Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, Mohsen Mahdawi, Yunseo Chung and Badar Khan Suri, each of whom U.S. immigration authorities targeted because of their involvement in anti-Israel activity at American universities, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Scant evidence: One case concerned the visa status of Öztürk, a Turkish student at Tufts University who was ordered to be deported last March and was arrested by federal agents on her way to a Ramadan event. A senior Department of Homeland Security official told JI last year that federal investigators “found Öztürk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.” The only public evidence at the time connecting her to the anti-Israel protest movement was a 2024 op-ed in Tufts’ student newspaper that she penned with three other students calling for the university to divest from Israel. One of the State Department memos unsealed last week revealed that this op-ed was the sole basis for the effort to deport her — and that department officials recognized it might face legal challenges. 

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

UNION LABEL

Beyond the assembly line: Auto workers’ labor union emerges as key player in anti-Israel activism

The United Auto Workers, one of the largest unions in the country, has increasingly drifted away from its core mission of representing autoworkers in the workplace, driven by individuals pushing an extreme anti-Israel political agenda that leaves critics questioning the relevance to workplace issues. The most recent example came earlier this month, when 30% of the 275 employees of the Israeli-owned Breads Bakery signed union authorization cards for UAW Local 2179, the percentage necessary to petition the National Labor Relations Board for a union election. The group’s demands include that the management of the New York-based bakery chain, CEO Yonatan Floman and founder Gadi Peleg, “halt use of bakery profit to materially support the Israeli occupation,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

Behind the push: Deborah Lipstadt, who served as the State Department’s antisemitism envoy under President Joe Biden, told JI that “many institutions and organizations, whether they be universities, unions [or] city councils, a small group is able to go in and organize, and with the minority of members, push a policy.” Lipstadt, a historian who has served on Emory University faculty for more than 30 years, said she has “seen similar situation[s] on university campuses and [within] professional academic organizations where a small group, sometimes just a few individuals, is able to gain control and push the organization in a certain direction, even if the vast majority of members don’t agree. I wonder if that is the same thing happening” with the Breads unionization push, she said.

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

Worthy Reads

Hatred, Then and Now: In The Telegraph, Deborah Lipstadt, who served as the Biden administration’s antisemitism envoy, distances modern-day antisemitism from that of prewar Europe, but warns that similar sentiments can erode society if not properly addressed. “There are no shortages of historical examples of anti-Semitism. And probably each generation that faced these disasters wondered if their experience paralleled that of a previous generation. While we do not want to forget or ignore the past – something I have spent my whole life studying and teaching – or ignore what might be the consequences of this cosmic hatred, we also must avoid finding or inventing simple continuities. Every situation and era has unique characteristics. While the past can remind us just how bad things can get, we must avoid using it as a template for predicting the future. … Today we find anti-Semitism on the Right and the Left. We find it among Christian nationalists and Islamist radicals. We find it among white supremacists and multiculturalists. We even find it among Jews. Too many people, who do not share these views, remain silent when those next to them, their political allies, engage in overt anti-Semitism.” [Telegraph]

Limits of the Law: In The Atlantic, John Yoo argues that the present-day interpretation of international law does not defend against malign actors and should be revamped accordingly. “If critics correctly argue that the attack on Venezuela violates international law, they have unintentionally revealed that international law — not the United States — must change. Removing Maduro was just: The dictatorship has killed tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of Venezuelans, destroyed the country’s economy, and denied the electoral wishes of the Venezuelan people for new leadership. But international law did nothing about this crisis, and countenanced no solution. Because it prevents Western democracies from using force to preempt grave threats from disruptive nations, such as Venezuela or Iran, while posing little obstacle to the designs of our rivals in Beijing or Moscow, international law no longer serves as an instrument of global stability.” [TheAtlantic]

Peace Board Problems: On X, Palestinian American analyst and Gaza native Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib raises concerns about the degree to which the Trump administration’s newly created Board of Peace can be effective given on-the-ground constraints. “There are no perfect answers, solutions, or scenarios to address the myriad of terrible circumstances that require tough choices, strategic patience, and some trial and error. That said, what has been unfolding reeks of a horrendous disaster in the making and a five-alarm fire that may ensure the failure of Gaza’s future trajectory and prospects especially as it relates to the post war era, de-Hamasification, demilitarization, and deradicalization – all of which are core necessities for any hope that the coastal enclave will no longer be a battle field for Islamist jihadi terrorism or meaningless regional proxy battles which lead to squandered potential, needless deaths, and wasted opportunities.” [X]

Word on the Street

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly rejected a request from the White House for Israeli President Isaac Herzog to attend last week’s Board of Peace signing ceremony on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland…

Axios obtained two audio recordings of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaking to donors last year, during which the potential 2028 presidential candidate suggested that Vice President JD Vance was “created” by his “protégé” Tucker Carlson, calling the two “one and the same”; Cruz also assailed the Trump administration’s economic policies and warned that Republicans could face a “bloodbath” in the 2026 midterms…

The New York Times spotlights political strategist Morris Katz, who was a key player in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign; Katz is also working for Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who has come under fire for having previously bragged about having tattoos of Nazi imagery…

The U.S. is reportedly pushing Bolivia to expel suspected Iranian spies from the South American country and to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah and Hamas as terror groups…

Columbia University’s Board of Trustees unanimously selected University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin to be the school’s next president; Mnookin, who will be the school’s fifth president in four years when she assumes the role at the end of the academic year, has led UW-Madison since 2022…

The New York City Council is investigating a recent fundraiser in Brooklyn hosted by the Muslim American Society in which merchandise supporting U.S.-designated terror groups including Hamas and Hezbollah were available for purchase… 

Robert Kraft’s New England Patriots are heading to next month’s Super Bowl, where they’ll face off against the Seattle Seahawks; the Patriots are making their 12th Super Bowl appearance, the most by any NFL team in history… 

The New York Times profiles Broadway songwriter Marc Shaiman, the co-lyricist behind “Hairspray,” ahead of the release of his memoir, Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories From a Sore Winner…

Police in London arrested 86 people who breached the grounds of a West London prison during a protest in support of a Palestine Action activist taking part in a hunger strike in the prison…

Australia canceled the visa of Sammy Yahood hours before the British-Israeli comedian was set to travel to the country for several speaking engagements; Yahood had in recent months called for the banning of Islam, which he had called a “murderous” and “disgusting” ideology…

Le Monde spotlights Israel’s Route 1 highway as a tourist destination, recommending that travelers make a stop at Neve Ilan’s Elvis American Diner…

Paypal acquired Israeli commerce technology startup Cymbio in a deal estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars…

The Wall Street Journal looks at efforts by Israel to work with Palestinian militias in Gaza that are fighting against Hamas in areas of the enclave still controlled by the terror group and unable to be accessed by Israeli forces…

Israeli airlines El Al, Israair and Arkia are loosening ticket cancellation policies amid concerns over conflict between Israel and Iran…

The New York Times does a deep dive into Iran’s violent crackdown on anti-government protesters, as The Washington Post reports on an attack by Iranian forces on people fleeing a fire at an open air market in which dozens of people were gunned down…

Meanwhile, two senior Iranian Health Ministry officials told Time that as many as 30,000 people have been killed since the protests began last month…

In Tehran, officials unveiled a mural over the weekend depicting a damaged aircraft carrier strewn with bodies with the message “If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind,” ostensibly a warning to the U.S. as an American aircraft carrier makes its way to the Gulf…

Saudi Arabia is scaling back its Neom project as the endeavor faces delays and funding issues…

The head of Iraq’s intelligence agency warned of a resurgence in Islamic State fighters in Syria, whose numbers have more than quintupled in the last year since President Ahmad al-Sharaa assumed power… 

New York City art dealer Marian Goodman, who helped garner interest in avant-garde European art in the 1980s, died at 97…

Pic of the Day

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (left) met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov in Baku earlier today. Sa’ar traveled to the Caucasus country with a delegation of Israeli businessmen for conversations focused on advancing bilateral economic ties.

Birthdays

Two-time Emmy Award-winning film and television director, her 2018 film is a biographical legal drama based on the life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mimi Leder turns 74…

Pioneering computer scientist, Barbara Bluestein Simons, Ph.D. turns 85… Singer-songwriter, socialite and political fundraiser, Denise Eisenberg Rich turns 82… Economic and social theorist, author of 23 books, Jeremy Rifkin turns 81… New Haven, Conn.-based personal injury attorney, Herbert Ira Mendelsohn… Publishing professional, Agnes F. Holland… Professor emeritus of modern Judaic studies at the University of Virginia, Peter W. Ochs turns 76… President of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, Rabbi Marc Schneier turns 67… Senior rabbi of Manhattan’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, Ammiel Hirsch turns 67… Argentina’s largest real estate developer, president of Chabad Argentina, president of Hillel Argentina and president of Taglit Birthright Argentina, Eduardo Elsztain turns 66… Co-founder of the Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy Fund, Laura Heller Lauder… President of HSK Consulting focused on strategic planning and fundraising services, Hilary Smith Kapner… Former CNN anchor and correspondent for 12 years, author of two books, she runs a website and newsletter focused on uplifting and positive news, Daryn Kagan turns 63… Co-founder of Boardroom One, Brent Cohen… Actress, comedian and television screenwriter, Claudia Lonow turns 63… Former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy turns 61… Chief of the general staff of the IDF, previously director-general of the Ministry of Defense, Eyal Zamir turns 60… Senior strategist and consultant at Hillel of Broward and Palm Beach, Fla., Jill Weinstock Deutch… Oakland County (Michigan) clerk and register of deeds, she served on the board of the Jewish Association for Residential Care, Lisa Brown turns 59… Inaugural director of the Pava Center for Women’s Torah Scholarship at Yeshiva University, Raizi Chechik… Former middleweight boxing champion, he retired in 2003 with a 37–1–1 record, now a credit union loan officer, Dana Rosenblatt turns 54… Retired tennis player who was the top-ranked player in his age group at the ages of 12, 14, 16 and 18, then as an adult he won 15 doubles championships, Justin Gimelstob turns 49… Actress, she hosted The CW reality series “Shedding for the Wedding,” Sara Rue (born Sara Schlackman) turns 47… Policy director and counsel at Morrison Cohen LLP, he was previously an Obama White House Jewish liaison, Jarrod Neal Bernstein turns 46… Senior advisor at the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and president of the Palm Collective, Tamar Remz… Former Olympic figure skater, now in business operations at Figma, Emily Hughes turns 37… Blues and jazz musician, he describes himself as “sporadically shomer Shabbos,” Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton turns 37… Member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 2015-2019, Jonathan Aaron Regunberg turns 36… Co-founder and CEO of Bardin, Fay Goldstein…

U.S. officials and GOP legislators are raising concerns about the Syrian government military offensive against territory held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which has been a close U.S. ally. 

Several Republican lawmakers said the Syrian government is failing to meet expectations that Damascus would protect minority rights — which was their impetus to agree to repeal the Caesar Act sanctions on Syria just months ago. 

The lawmakers are now threatening to reverse course — but re-imposing those sanctions would be a difficult task.

The Syrian military, assisted by local tribal militias, has advanced into areas of northern Syria long held by the SDF, pushing them out and taking control of major power-generation facilities and oil and gas fields. Despite certain agreements made between Syrian Kurds and the government, the SDF said the government had not offered them sufficient concessions or autonomy.

On Sunday, the Syrian government announced a new agreement with the SDF, which would involve further significant concessions by the SDF to the Syrian government.

“The United States commends the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for their constructive efforts in reaching today’s ceasefire agreement, paving the way for renewed dialogue and cooperation toward a unified Syria,” U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who also serves as Syria envoy, said in a statement.

Barrack said that the Syrian government had “affirmed that the Kurds are an integral part of Syria, and the United States looks forward to the seamless integration of our historic partner in the fight against ISIS with the Global Coalition’s newest member, as we press forward in the enduring battle against terrorism.”

He said that work would have to continue to finalize a “comprehensive integration agreement.”

On Saturday, some U.S. officials had expressed concerns about the Syrian government offensive.

“We welcome ongoing efforts by all parties in Syria to prevent escalation and pursue resolution through dialogue. We also urge Syrian government forces to cease any offensive actions in areas between Aleppo and al-Tabqa,” Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads U.S. Central Command, said in a statement on Saturday. “Aggressively pursuing ISIS and relentlessly applying military pressure requires teamwork among Syrian partners in coordination with U.S. and coalition forces. A Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors is essential to peace and stability across the region.”

Several prominent GOP lawmakers also expressed concern about the developing situation and threatened to reimpose sanctions as a result.

“The Kurdish people have long fought for a better future for Syria and have been steadfast American partners,” Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), the House Foreign Affairs Committee chair, said in a statement. “It is time for Syrian President [Ahmad] al-Sharaa to follow in their footsteps and work for his country’s future, rather than fighting the Kurdish people.”

Mast had been a skeptic of fully repealing the Caesar sanctions, but ultimately acquiesced.

“If there is use of military force by the new Syrian government against Syrian Kurds and the SDF, that would create tremendous instability in Syria and the region and would tell me all I need to know about this new regime,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said. “If military action is taken by the Syrian government, I will do everything in my power to revive the Caesar Act sanctions, making them even more bone crushing.”

Graham fought, unsuccessfully, to place binding conditions on the repeal of the sanctions. He and Mast ultimately both pushed for non-binding conditions to be included in the repeal, which recommended the administration reimpose sanctions if the Syrian government fails to protect minority rights.

Lawmakers faced intense pressure, including from the Trump administration as well as from Syrian diaspora groups, to agree to a full and unconditional repeal of the sanctions. Restoring a sanctions regime similar to Caesar now would likely require renewed action by Congress.

“Amidst numerous brutal attacks on religious and ethnic minorities in Syria — including Christians, Druze, and Kurds — I call on the Syrian government to do more to stop the violence immediately,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the former Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said. “Congress’ repeal of Caesar Act sanctions should not be misconstrued as indifference to the government’s actions, but as an expectation that they will form a better future in which all Syrians can live in peace.”

McCaul, like Graham, suggested that Congress would act to reimpose sanctions if the Syrian government does not change course in protecting minorities and following through on an agreement to integrate the SDF into the state armed forces.

“I am also deeply concerned by reports that armed forces are advancing against the Syrian Democratic Forces in Aleppo. I would remind the Syrian government that the Caesar Act repeal included requirements on protecting ethnic minorities and upholding the March 10th integration agreements with the SDF,” McCaul continued. “The government must immediately de-escalate and protect vulnerable communities to ensure the stability of the region. Congress — and the United States — is watching closely.”

Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) said that the Syrian government has the “responsibility” to stop any violence in Syria and “must protect all Syrians from [being] attacked — no matter their religion.”

“The outcome of this situation is going to determine how America approaches Syrian diplomacy in the future. If Al-Sharra needs help putting a stop to the violence, he should ask for help!” Stutzman, one of the first lawmakers to travel to Syria after the fall of the Assad regime, said. “Sanctions can be reversed!!”

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced legislation on Wednesday to condemn the Israeli government for allegedly withholding aid in Gaza and to potentially impose sanctions on Israeli government officials.

Under the Accountability for Withholding Aid and Relief Essentials (AWARE) Act, any foreign government officials or those acting on their behalf “found to be restricting, diminishing, undermining, or preventing the delivery and distribution of sufficient humanitarian assistance” would be subject to U.S. financial and visa-blocking sanctions.

The legislation includes a presidential waiver, though that, or the removal of sanctions, can be overridden by a joint resolution of disapproval by Congress. Senior lawmakers would also be allowed to request an assessment of whether a foreign official meets the criteria for sanctions.

The policy would apply globally, but is formulated around the situation in Gaza.

The legislation states that the entire population of Gaza is “facing acute levels of hunger” and that “actual levels of humanitarian assistance remain well below what is needed,” though a U.N. report last week stated that 100% of Gaza’s basic food needs, for the first time since 2023, are now being met.

“The United States must send a clear message to [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu and any other leader who would deny food, medicine, and shelter to vulnerable people: If you are complicit in denying humanitarian assistance to Palestinians or others in need, you will face personal consequences,” Wyden said.

Wyden, who is Jewish, has generally not been a prominent critic of Israel in the Senate, and did not vote with a majority of his Democratic colleagues last year to block certain weapons shipments to Israel.

“As Jews, we have a duty to moral leadership. Netanyahu has failed this duty by all counts,” he continued. “As a lifelong champion for Israel’s security, I believe the actions of the Netanyahu government have made Jews less safe and contributed to horrific suffering in Gaza.”

Under the legislation, the administration would also be required to report annually to Congress on any officials violating the policy and justify any case in which sanctions were not imposed — or to explain their reasoning if they fail to add any individuals to the list.

It further states that it will be U.S. policy that “if a government is unable or unwilling to ensure delivery and distribution of sufficient humanitarian assistance to a territory under its control, that government must allow any and all United States and internationally recognized humanitarian organizations to deliver and distribute sufficient humanitarian assistance to the protected persons in that territory.”

Various international NGOs, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), that are cited in the bill text, as well as the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, have been found by Israel and researchers to have employed members of Hamas and other terrorist groups. Israel recently banned MSF and other international NGOs because they refused to provide information about their staff for vetting.

The legislation condemns both Hamas and Iran, while also condemning Israel for restricting aid flows into Gaza, stating, “actions by the Netanyahu administration that have contributed to the humanitarian crisis and acute suffering of Palestinians are horrifying” and that the Israeli government’s actions are “not consistent with the State of Israel’s core values” and have “eroded the State of Israel’s standing in the world by undermining the rule of law and violating fundamental human rights.”

The legislation is supported by the Friends Committee on National Legislation, New Jewish Narrative, J Street and Refugees International.

“Our Jewish values compel us to stand up against the continued oppressive restrictions on humanitarian aid into Gaza, which exacerbate the destruction inflicted on civilians by two years of war,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said in a statement. “At a time when humanitarian groups are facing increasing obstacles to providing help on the ground, those who intentionally restrict access to humanitarian assistance must face real consequences.

“Humanitarian aid should never be used as a weapon of war. Nor should the suffering of a people be exploited for diplomatic leverage,” NJN CEO Hadar Susskind said. “Unfortunately, the current Israeli government has a demonstrable record of doing just that. Gazans continue to suffer to this day. By introducing this bill, Senator Wyden is reasserting American values, and backing them up with real consequences.”

Middle East policy experts argued on Wednesday that the United States should actively intervene in Iran’s unrest — including through cyber measures, economic pressure and potentially military strikes — amid the regime’s crackdown on nationwide protests. The comments were made during a program hosted by Iran International, one of the largest independent Persian-language news outlets in the world.

President Donald Trump has for days issued repeated warnings to the regime that the U.S. is “watching closely” and that Iran would “pay hell” for killing protesters. On Wednesday afternoon, however, the president said he had been notified that the “killing in Iran is stopping” and that Iran would not be conducting executions of protesters, as was expected, and downplayed the severity of protester deaths.

“The first thing I would recommend is that we use our very impressive capabilities to shut down the communication system for the government,” said Robert Satloff, executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, speaking of a potential retaliation for the regime’s decision to cut internet access to the public. “This will be a huge step.”

Satloff said if that did not work, he would then support subsequent U.S. strikes on Iranian military infrastructure.

“If that first act does not bring about a substantial change in Iranian behavior, then I would target very specifically the barracks and the facilities of the IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps],” said Satloff. 

Joel Rayburn, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former diplomat in the Middle East, argued that any U.S. intervention in Iran should not be a “one-off military strike,” but rather a sustained “campaign” of economic and political pressure. 

Rayburn was tapped by the White House to be assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in February 2025, however, his nomination was ultimately pulled last October. 

“We have to use all of the tools at our disposal,” Rayburn said Wednesday. “There’s no reason not to be fully implementing maximum pressure to pressure the Iranian regime in order to change its behavior.” 

Responding to questions about whether a weak Iranian regime — in the midst of dire economic and political challenges — can survive the protests, Rayburn suggested it is bound to fall, stating that there will be a “day after this Khamenei regime,” referring to Iran’s supreme leader, and that he believes that day will come “sooner rather than later.”

“The Iranian regime is going to collapse at some point in the not-too-distant future,” said Rayburn. “[It] can no longer function as a state. The last function they can perform is to use violence against their own people. That means they are not a sustainable regime.” 

Tehran has threatened to respond to any military action with retaliation against the U.S. and Israel. Satloff said the fall of the regime would be “an enormous strategic gain for Israel,” but noted that Jerusalem is “playing it quiet.” 

“The Israelis have made at least the tactical decision, that since Donald Trump has been out front, that Donald Trump has drawn a line in the sand, let Donald Trump be the key actor right now,” said Satloff. “There is no comparative advantage for Israel to be out in front in any military fashion. Let the United States play this role, the president seems to have embraced it.”

He also cast doubt on the likelihood that Tehran would strike Israel in response to U.S. action. Reports have indicated that Iran and Israel have conveyed reassurances through Russian intermediaries that neither side intends to carry out a preemptive strike.

“If the Iranians make the mistake of retaliating against Israel or Israeli assets, or Jewish assets around the world, there will be a very high price to pay,” said Satloff. 

Analysts also weighed in on reports that Gulf allies have been lobbying the Trump administration to refrain from striking or intervening in Iran, warning that a U.S. intervention could be ineffective and expose them to retaliation. While the analysts acknowledged those concerns, they argued that regional governments would ultimately like to see the regime fall.

“I don’t think there are any major frontline countries in the Gulf region that believe that the Iranian regime is a regime that they can live with indefinitely,” said Rayburn. “We have not seen real restraint from the Arab capitals to either U.S. or Israeli pressure against the Iranian regime. All of those capitals would be better off without the regime.”

Regardless of whether the U.S. intervenes, Satloff emphasized that any outcome is “ultimately an Iranian process and an Iranian decision.”

“This will be their [the Iranian people’s] revolution, if it happens,” said Satloff. “It will not be something that we trigger or engineer, but to help them to be able to assert their own wishes and desires for the future.”

The United States, Israel and their regional allies are watching closely as sustained unrest in Iran puts renewed pressure on the regime at a moment of economic strain, international isolation and lingering fallout from the 12-day war with Israel last June.

Recent demonstrations have spread across all 31 of Iran’s provinces, fueled by public anger over a collapsing economy, inflation exceeding 40% and aggressive crackdowns by security forces. Economic pressure — intensified by costly proxy wars and United Nations sanctions — have sent Iran’s currency into a sharp decline.

Jonathan Ruhe, a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, said the regime’s “unwillingness to be responsive to its people’s basic demands and rights,” is also a factor. Adding that Tehran has a “clear preference to spend the country’s resources on military projects like its proxies, missiles and nuclear program instead of its citizens’ well-being.”

More than 400 demonstrations took place this week alone, with at least 743 recorded over the past month, according to a tracker from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The death toll has reached at least 38, with more than 2,200 arrests reported. The demonstrations are the largest since April 2025 and among the most sustained since late 2022 as videos continue to circulate online of Iranians flooding the streets, burning regime flags and lighting fire to statues of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ruhe said that uprisings by the Iranian people against the regime are not uncommon. “In 2009 it was political corruption, when the regime clearly stole the presidential election to get [former President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad reelected,” he said. “In 2017-18 it was economic and foreign policy issues, for instance Iranians being killed in the Syrian civil war and the regime’s lavish spending on its proxies instead of at home. In 2022 it was social and cultural issues, namely hijab enforcement.”

But experts say what is unfolding now could be more significant than protests of the past, expressing to Jewish Insider that recent developments could pose an unprecedented challenge to a regime already under strain. 

Behnam Ben Taleblu, the senior director of FDD’s Iran program, called the protests a “nationwide anti-regime uprising,” telling JI that they are reaching a “crescendo” with a “greater demographic and geographic group of Iranians protesting.”

“Protests have rapidly spread due to the shared consensus that the Islamic Republic of Iran is behind the demise of Iran,” said Taleblu, who called the demonstrators “historic and different” given how the Iranian people have “not given up” in the face of crackdowns. “This matters for a regime that is battered and bruised.”

Ruhe also said the protests are “different from past waves,” explaining that the regime is less capable of solving the issues of the Iranian people in the current moment. 

“The economic grievances that triggered the current protests are much more clearly beyond the regime’s ability to fix than they might have been years ago, before the effects of the regime’s corruption and mismanagement had reached the point where the country is running out of electricity and water and its money is absolutely worthless,” said Ruhe. 

The ayatollah’s fears are also likely heightened by the recent U.S. operation in Venezuela that ousted President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. pursuing similar actions in Iran is unlikely, however, Iranian officials have expressed concerns that their regime in Tehran could be next. President Donald Trump has warned that the U.S. is watching the protests “very closely.” 

In response, the Iranian regime has vowed to crack down against protesters, with Khamenei stating last week that they must be “put in their place.” The regime also appeared to cut off internet access on Thursday. But none of these methods have seemed to quell the unrest, with recent reports suggesting Khamenei could flee Tehran for Moscow if security forces become overwhelmed by protests.

Nadav Eyal wrote that the continued protests could indicate that “fear has shifted sides” from the people of Iran to the regime itself.

“The oppressors are no longer as certain as they once were in using force. They cannot compete with sheer numbers, with masses filling the streets,” Eyal wrote on X. “The Islamic Republic still possesses formidable repressive capacity. Yet the signals — hesitation, mixed messaging, demonstration of fear by cutting internet — suggest a leadership aware that it may no longer be able to rely on obedience.”

When Valerie Stramwasser woke up on Saturday, Jan. 3, she glanced at her phone and saw hundreds of WhatsApp messages. 

“I’m like, ‘Oh my god, something happened.’ I first thought that it was something in the family, and then I opened up and I hear, ‘We’re free.’ We’re free. It happened,” Stramwasser told Jewish Insider on Thursday. “Literally tears of joy.” 

Stramwasser, 37, lives in Hollywood, Fla., with her husband and two children, but she grew up in Caracas, Venezuela. She was forced to flee the country as a teenager after a failed kidnapping attempt against her. She hasn’t been back in years, not even for the funerals of her grandparents. 

The tears of joy began when she saw the news that the U.S. military had captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, and flown them to New York to stand trial on narco-terrorism charges. Stramwasser and her husband, who is also Venezuelan, couldn’t wait to tell their 8- and 11-year-old children the news.

“As a mom, you tell the stories to your kids, and they know how much I miss my country. But I’ve never been able to go back,” Stramwasser recounted. Then they drove to her brother’s house to celebrate and watch President Donald Trump discuss the operation. “This is one of the most important things that, as a Venezuelan, you can hear in the past 30 years.”

“Growing up there, it was a community of about 28,000 Jews that were living there. It was a vibrant community, a very successful and respected community,” said Paul Kruss, a city commissioner in Aventura, Fla., who also owns a popular local bagel shop. “Now there’s maybe 4,500 that live there, which should tell you all you need to know about the kind of brain drain that they had. It wasn’t only the Jewish community that fled.” 

An economic crisis that began under the country’s socialist president, Hugo Chávez, who was elected in 1999, grew exponentially worse when Maduro came to power in 2013 after Chávez’s death. The resulting poverty, starvation and crime have led to a massive refugee crisis of roughly 8 million people who have left the South American country. Amid the global diaspora of Venezuelans, many are cheering the removal of Maduro, whom they view as responsible for deteriorating standards of living, repression and political dysfunction plaguing the country. 

Stramwasser is one of hundreds of thousands of those Venezuelans who now call Florida home, including several thousand Venezuelan Jews who have developed outposts of their once-strong Caracas community centers in Miami. 

“Growing up there, it was a community of about 28,000 Jews that were living there. It was a vibrant community, a very successful and respected community,” said Paul Kruss, a city commissioner in Aventura, Fla., who also owns a popular local bagel shop. His mother, who was from Warsaw, Poland, moved to Caracas after surviving the Holocaust. “Now there’s maybe 4,500 that live there, which should tell you all you need to know about the kind of brain drain that they had. It wasn’t only the Jewish community that fled.” 

The surprise operation has largely garnered support from Republicans, while Democrats are more skeptical, including many who are outspoken critics of Maduro, igniting a debate in Congress about presidential war powers. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Trump should not have acted without congressional approval.

“Maduro is a horrible, horrible person, but you don’t treat lawlessness with other lawlessness, and that’s what’s happened here,” Schumer said over the weekend. 

In Florida, even among Democrats, the reaction was more celebratory. 

“The capture of the brutal, illegitimate ruler of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who oppressed Venezuela’s people is welcome news for my friends and neighbors who fled his violent, lawless, and disastrous rule,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said in a statement. “However, cutting off the head of a snake is fruitless if it just regrows. Venezuelans deserve the promise of democracy and the rule of law, not a state of endless violence and spiraling disorder.”

The question of what comes next for Venezuela remains unanswered. The country’s interim president is Delcy Rodríguez, the vice president and oil minister, who was close to Maduro. 

“The good thing about what just happened is that sometimes bad people in the world need a message to be sent. If they know that they can do bad things, and no one will come for them, well, they will just keep doing bad things,” said Brian Fincheltub. “ We want to go back, so we are very happy with this.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out a three-step process for Washington’s plans in Venezuela: stabilizing the country, followed by allowing American companies access to the Venezuelan market and, finally, a transition of power. But the U.S. has not laid out plans for a new political regime in Venezuela. 

The Venezuelans cheering on the ouster of Maduro are content to wait a bit longer.

“She’s been part of the problem, no question,” Kruss said of Rodríguez. “I’m hopeful that the United States will be guiding them and letting the Venezuelan people decide who they want to be their leader, and I think this is just a transition period.”

Brian Fincheltub grew up in the Caracas Jewish community, which he called “one of the best in the world.” He was a social activist working in the slums of Caracas, but due to his ties to the opposition party, he fled the country in 2018 to avoid being jailed. Venezuela’s National Assembly named opposition leader Juan Guaidó acting president of Venezuela in 2019, setting up a showdown with Maduro, who never ceded power. Fincheltub moved to Washington to serve as Venezuela’s consul general under Guaidó’s opposition rule. Now Fincheltub works at the World Bank.

Fincheltub supports Trump’s actions, which he said is not about politics — that he would have supported the move had President Joe Biden done the same thing.

“The good thing about what just happened is that sometimes bad people in the world need a message to be sent. If they know that they can do bad things, and no one will come for them, well, they will just keep doing bad things,” said Fincheltub, 38. “ We want to go back, so we are very happy with this.”

Some Venezuelan Jews see similarities in the response of far-left activists to Trump’s capture of Maduro and their criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“People who are not Venezuelan, who did not grow up under Chávez or Maduro, who did not lose their country, their safety, their future, feel entitled to explain Venezuela to us,” said Valerie Stramwasser, who has said Florida will remain her home even if Venezuela elects a new government. “The same goes for people who are not Jewish, who have never lived the history, the wars, the constant existential threat, feel entitled to explain the Israel-Palestine conflict to us.”

“The same ones that were attacking Israel and the Jewish people are the same ones, or many of them, that are attacking President Trump, or that are attacking what happened in Venezuela,” Fincheltub said. “This is not about President Trump or President Biden. This is about the liberation of Venezuela.”

Stramwasser posted a video making a similar point on Instagram, where her posts usually get a couple thousand views. This one has been viewed more than 500,000 times.

“People who are not Venezuelan, who did not grow up under Chávez or Maduro, who did not lose their country, their safety, their future, feel entitled to explain Venezuela to us,” said Stramwasser, who has said Florida will remain her home even if Venezuela elects a new government. “The same goes for people who are not Jewish, who have never lived the history, the wars, the constant existential threat, feel entitled to explain the Israel-Palestine conflict to us.”

History, she added, will be on her side.

“History is very clear about this,” Stramwasser said in the video. “Those who confuse aggressors with victims don’t end up on the right side of history.”

Bashir Goth is in the unusual position of serving as a diplomat from a place that almost no one else in the world considers a country. That changed last month, when Israel became the first state to formally recognize Somaliland as an independent nation. 

That gives Goth an opening he has been seeking since he arrived in Washington in 2018: a chance to try to convince the United States to now follow Israel’s lead and recognize the independence of Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia that has governed itself for 35 years. 

“Our friends will be more active now, more vigorous, more encouraged by the Israeli recognition,” Goth told Jewish Insider in an interview on Wednesday. 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar visited Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, for a meeting on Tuesday with Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi. Goth is hoping to capitalize on the rare occurrence of Somaliland being in the news, in part by attempting to rally American Jews to his cause. 

“We always built very strong relations and engagements with Jewish organizations in Washington, D.C., and they are more active now, more than any time before,” said Goth. “I think they will also be very, very helpful in pushing this forward.” 

Major American Jewish organizations, however, have not weighed in on Israel’s decision to recognize Somaliland, except for a post on X by AIPAC that took aim at Qatar for criticizing Israel’s actions. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has urged American recognition of Somaliland, but President Donald Trump said this week that he would not do so. 

Goth, ever the diplomat, did a close read of Trump’s comments and held tight to one sentence that gave him hope — Trump told The New York Post last month that he would “study” the matter.

“Regarding President Trump, I think if you look at the end, at the last sentence of his statement, with that interview, he said, ‘At the end of the day, I study everything,’” Goth said. 

Washington considers Somaliland part of Somalia, a policy in keeping with the African Union and the United Nations. And while geopolitics factor into Goth’s pitch — he suggests that a Somaliland aligned with Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and the U.S. could be a bulwark to China, Turkey and Somalia — his message to American officials is all about politics.

“The Somaliland story always resonated with the Republican community here in Washington, D.C., and in America, because it’s a country that has built itself from ruins, from rivers, to what it is now — its democracy and infrastructure — by its own resources, ‘by its bootstraps,’ as the Americans say,” said Goth. “We will be part of contributing to the prosperity and peace that the current American government is looking for.”

News reports last year suggested that Israel had approached Somaliland officials about the prospect of relocating Palestinians from Gaza, which Somaliland has denied. Goth called it a “false statement.” 

Israel has sought ties with Somaliland in part because of its strategic proximity to Yemen, which could offer Israel a better position from which to attack the Iran-aligned Houthis. Deqa Qasim, the director of the political department in Somaliland’s Foreign Ministry, told Israel’s N12 on Thursday that Jerusalem and Hargeisa were discussing setting up an Israeli military base in the African territory, contradicting a previous denial that such an agreement was on the table. Goth would not say whether Somaliland had agreed to allow Israel to do so, but he did not deny it.

“There’s nothing that says we cannot have a security pact or agreement with Israel, and I can leave it like that,” he said.

Israeli recognition of Somaliland, home to 6 million people, also allows Goth to make the case that Israeli prosperity could be a beacon for Somaliland — an example, perhaps, of making the desert bloom.

“We could be the Singapore of the Horn of Africa, if we are given the chance. And there is no better example to look at than Israel. And what you achieved in Israel. To have our recognition from Israel will open that prosperity, I think, for us, in technology [and] agriculture,” Goth said. “That would be, actually, a role model for us.”

President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States would intervene to “rescue” Iranian anti-government protesters if the Iranian government attempts to kill them, amid a renewed wave of public demonstrations in Iran.

“If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump said on Truth Social. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Nationwide protests have racked Iran for days, largely caused by an ongoing economic crisis and broader discontent with the regime.

Trump publicly floated the idea of pursuing regime change and targeting the leadership of the Islamic Republic last summer during the Israel-Iran war, but later backed off of the idea.

Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, responded to Trump on X, suggesting that the U.S. and Israel are interfering in Iranian internal affairs and threatening U.S. soldiers.

“With the statements by Israeli officials and @realDonaldTrump, what has been going on behind the scenes is now clear. We distinguish between the stance of the protesting shopkeepers and the actions of disruptive actors, and Trump should know that U.S. interference in this internal matter would mean destabilizing the entire region and destroying America’s interests,” Larijani said. “The American people should know — Trump started this adventurism. They should be mindful of their soldiers’ safety.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) praised Trump’s efforts and said, “A weakened Iran — a nation run by religious nazis — is due to President Trump’s efforts to isolate Iran economically and to use military force wisely. It is time to Make Iran Great Again.”

“Under President Trump’s leadership and in collaboration with our allies, I can see the demise of Hamas and Hezbollah in 2026, paving the way for normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. This would be the biggest change in the Middle East in thousands of years,” Graham continued.

Daniel Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel and a senior Defense Department official in the Biden administration, advised Democrats to express support for the Iranian protesters.

“This should be a bipartisan issue,” Shapiro said. “Press Trump to do more than issue threats: support protesters with internet access and prepare now to advise/assist in a transition.”

He also said that Trump’s threat “could be a tipping point moment” if it causes the Iranian regime to refrain from crackdowns, but also “imposes an obligation on the U.S. to follow through if needed, with both the risk of deeper U.S. military involvement, and the moral hazard of failing to back up the threat.”

Shapiro urged the administration to prepare “now for the transition that may unfold. The U.S. must be prepared to provide humanitarian assistance, expertise in institution building and reconstruction, carefully implemented sanctions relief, and coordination among regional partners to assist Iranians in steering toward a transition to a peaceful, stable (and hopefully democratic) outcome.”

President Donald Trump vowed on Monday that he would support the U.S. or Israel launching another round of strikes against Iran if Tehran is attempting to rebuild its ballistic missile program or nuclear facilities.

Trump made the comments while speaking to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the latter’s fifth visit to the United States this year. 

Asked if he will support another Israeli attack on Iran if they continue their ballistic missile and nuclear programs, Trump said, “If they continue with the missiles? Yes. If the nuclear? Fast, okay? One will be yes, absolutely; the other was, we’ll do it immediately.”

He added later, “If they are [rearming], we’re going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that build up. … We don’t want to waste the fuel on a B-2 [bomber]. It’s a 37-hour trip, both ways, I don’t want to waste a lot of fuel,” suggesting the U.S. would again utilize its bomber jets that conducted the June strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The president repeatedly urged Tehran to return to the negotiating table with the U.S. while cautioning that the regime would face consequences for declining his offer to address the nuclear issue diplomatically. “They could have made a deal the last time before we went through the big attack on them, and they decided not to make the deal. They wish they made that deal. So I think, again, they should make a deal,” he said.

About reports that Iran is rearming, Trump said, “Iran may be behaving badly. It hasn’t been confirmed, but if it’s confirmed, look, they know the consequences.”

“This is just what we hear, but usually where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” he continued. “I’m hearing that their [efforts are] not nuclear yet, but maybe nuclear, too. The sites were obliterated, but they’re looking at other sites [than the ones the U.S. bombed in June]. That’s what I’ve heard. They’re looking. It’ll take a long time. They’re not going to go back to where they were, but they have other places they can go. And if they’re doing that, they’re making a big mistake.”

Trump repeatedly praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his remarks with Netanyahu, pledging to thaw tensions between the Turkish and Israeli leaders and repeated that he was “very seriously” considering approving Turkey’s longstanding requests to purchase F-35 fighter jets from the United States. “We’re thinking about it very seriously,” Trump said about the move, which Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said last month that Israel opposes.

“I know President Erdogan very well, and as you all know, he’s a very good friend of mine … and I do respect him and Bibi respects him, and they’re not going to have a problem,” Trump said.

Speaking to reporters alongside Netanyahu ahead of their meeting, Trump also voiced his support for Turkey joining the proposed U.S.-led International Stabilization Force to be deployed in Gaza.

“I have a great relationship with President Erdogan, and we’ll be talking about it. And if it’s good, I think that’s good. And a lot will be having to do with Bibi, we’re going to be talking about that,” Trump said. “But Turkey has been great, and he [Erdogan] has been excellent, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know about you [Netanyahu], but to me he’s been very good.” 

Netanyahu did not comment on the suggestion at the time or during the press conference later on, though Israel, as well as several U.S. lawmakers, has said it opposes Ankara’s involvement in the proposed peacekeeping force due largely to Turkey’s ties to Hamas, despite the supportive posture from the Trump administration.

The president later used the topic of Syria to again praise Erdogan, arguing the Turkish leader deserved “a lot of credit” for ousting the Assad regime. 

“Don’t forget, it was President Erdogan that helped very much get rid of a very bad ruler of Syria. That was President Erdogan, and he never wanted the credit for it, but he really gets a lot of credit. Bibi agrees with that. … I know it,” Trump told reporters. 

The president went on to say that the U.S. and Israel “have an understanding regarding Syria” and that he was working to improve relations between the Jewish state and its neighbor, praising Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa along the way. 

“We do have an understanding regarding Syria. Now with Syria, your new president. I respect him. He’s a very strong guy. That’s what you need in Syria. You can’t put a choir boy, you can’t put somebody that’s a perfect person — everything’s nice, no problems in life,” Trump said. 

“I’m sure that Israel and him will get along,” he continued. “I will try and make it so that they do get along. I think they will.” 

For its part, Israel has been wary of al-Sharaa and the new Syrian government, with the IDF maintaining control of the 155-square-mile buffer zone between the two countries since the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad last year, against Damascus’ wishes. Israel and Syria have also continued to disagree on the contours of a potential security agreement, which the Trump administration has continuously sought, with Netanyahu maintaining that any agreement must require Syria to accept the demilitarization of territory stretching from southern Damascus to the Israeli border.  

Trump was also asked about the Lebanese government’s failure thus far to disarm Hezbollah, amid reports that the terror group is rearming. The president demurred when pressed on his support of Israel striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon again as a result, instead only acknowledging his disapproval with the terrorist organization. 

“Well, we’re going to see about that. We’ll see about it,” Trump said. “The Lebanese government is at a little bit of a disadvantage, if you think of it, with Hezbollah, but Hezbollah has been behaving badly. So we’ll see what happens.”

Asked about attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, Trump acknowledged that he and Netanyahu discussed the West Bank during the meeting and that they’re not in complete alignment on the issue. Still, Trump expressed confidence that all parties would reach “a conclusion” to prevent the matter from undermining the implementation of his broader peace plan, though he declined to offer specifics.

“Well, we have had a discussion, big discussion, for a long time on the West Bank. And I wouldn’t say we agree on the West Bank 100%, but we will come to a conclusion on the West Bank. … It’ll be announced at an appropriate time, but [Netanyahu] will do the right thing. I know that. I know him very well. He will do the right thing,” he said.

Trump also expressed gratitude during his remarks for being named the recipient of the Israel Prize, the Jewish state’s highest cultural honor awarded by the country’s education minister. Netanyahu said Trump will be the first non-Israeli to receive the award, which the president said “really is a great honor.”

Netanyahu invited Trump to visit Israel on Yom Ha’atzmaut, the Jewish state’s independence day, in April, which will be an election year, to receive the award in person. 

Joined by Trump at his the meeting with Netanyahu were White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles; Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy at the White House; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Steve Witkoff, the White House’s Mideast envoy; and Jared Kushner, Trump’s advisor on Middle East efforts. 

Netanyahu also met individually with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth while at the president’s property. 

👋 Good Tuesday morning!

In today’s Daily Kickoff, we preview next week’s White House meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, and profile Israeli Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, who was recently announced as the next head of the Mossad. We look at efforts by former Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom organization to hire former Heritage Foundation staffers as the think tank faces mass departures over its support for Tucker Carlson, and report on moves by members of the Holocaust Memorial Council to remove Sen. Bernie Sanders over his failure to attend board meetings and repeated claims about Gaza that run counter to the museum’s mission. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Larry Ellison, George Conway and Sen. Ted Cruz.

Today’s Daily Kickoff was curated by Jewish Insider Executive Editor Melissa Weiss and Israel Editor Tamara Zieve, with an assist from Marc Rod. Have a tip? Email us here.

Ed. note: This is the last Daily Kickoff of 2025. The next Daily Kickoff will arrive on Monday, Jan. 5. Sign up for our email alerts to continue to read our breaking news reporting through the new year.

What We’re Watching

• We’ll be reporting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House, slated for next week. More below.
• New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in on Jan. 1. New York Attorney General Tish James will conduct the official swearing-in at midnight, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will perform the ceremonial swearing-in during the day.

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD WITH JI’S LAHAV’S HARKOV

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Donald Trump next week, the Iranian threat will be at the top of the agenda. That’s a sentence that could have been written countless times in the past – but this time, after the degradation of Iran’s nuclear program, was supposed to be different.

We’re six months out from Operation Midnight Hammer, when the U.S. and Israel worked together to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, and the 11 days of Israeli airstrikes on Iran that preceded it.

But much of the public conversation following that 12-day war focused on the damage done to Iran’s nuclear program – which is likely significant, but still hard to measure precisely – and less on the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missiles and air defenses.

Israel destroyed hundreds of missiles, launchers and production sites, and boasted about its control of the airspace over Tehran a day into the war as testament to its military prowess. But Jerusalem is now deeply concerned that Tehran has managed to recoup, with help from China, much of its losses.

In that vein, Netanyahu and his team are preparing to brief Trump on Israel’s concerns that Iran is expanding its ballistic missile program.

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

WAITING FOR GOFMAN

Netanyahu’s nominee to lead Mossad is his close advisor and an IDF general who fought the system

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement earlier this month that his military secretary, Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, would become head of the Mossad, came as a surprise to the public, as journalists and experts had been confident that current Mossad chief David Barnea’s deputy, known only as “A,” had the job in all but name. However, for those who know Gofman, his time in the IDF and his working relationship with Netanyahu, as well as the prime minister’s post-Oct. 7 predilection for bringing in outside candidates to take over defense institutions, Gofman was a natural choice, Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov reports.

Background: Gofman has a limited public profile as Netanyahu’s senior military advisor. But in Israel, his face is fairly familiar, as he can be seen walking behind Netanyahu into the Oval Office and other high-level meetings, even as military secretaries don’t make public statements. Gofman, 49, was born in Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union, and immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of 14. He was bullied in school and took up boxing to fight back, becoming the second-ranked young boxer in Israel in his weight category. He enlisted in the IDF Armored Corps in 1995 and has been in the military ever since, rising to the rank of Aluf, or major general. 

Read the full profile here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

CONSERVATIVE REALIGNMENT

Mike Pence’s think tank absorbs wave of Heritage departures

Tim Chapman, the president of former Vice President Mike Pence’s think tank, said on Monday that he expects his Advancing American Freedom organization to poach more staffers from the Heritage Foundation after announcing the hiring of 15 individuals from the embattled conservative organization, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports.

New recruits: Advancing American Freedom, founded by Pence in 2021 to advocate for classical conservative principles as President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement cemented its hold on parts of the Republican Party, announced on Monday that 15 Heritage staffers, including three senior officials from the think tank’s legal, economic and data teams, would be moving to AAF at the start of the new year. Chapman, who has been leading the recruitment effort, predicted more Heritage staffers would resign amid continuing frustration over Heritage President Kevin Roberts’ refusal to disavow Tucker Carlson for his platforming of neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes.

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

SANDERS SCRUTINY

Trump-appointed Holocaust Museum board members pushing to oust Bernie Sanders

Several Trump appointees to the board of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum are pushing for the ouster of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), alleging that he has rarely attended meetings and that his accusations of genocide against Israel run directly counter to the museum’s mission, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

What they’re saying: Jonathan Burkan, who was appointed to the council twice by President Donald Trump, said he’s never seen Sanders at any meetings of the council — which he said has not been the case for other lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans. “Everything that’s happened after Oct. 7, everything that has been going on with antisemitism, with the Holocaust — I do feel that if someone is a Jewish elected official, they should at least attend one meeting in over a 20 year period of time,” Burkan said. “They should find someone else besides Bernie just to be on the council.”

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

MILITARY MATTERS

Pentagon plan to reorganize military could undermine U.S.-Israel security, experts warn

Senior Pentagon officials are reportedly weighing a sweeping proposal to reorganize the U.S. military that would shift authorities and resources away from the Middle East, a move experts warn could undermine U.S.-Israel security cooperation and destabilize the region. The plan, driven by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, would reduce the number of U.S. combatant commands from 11 to eight, cut the number of four-star generals and consolidate regional commands into broader organizations. Most notably, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) — which oversees the Middle East and parts of South Asia — would be placed under a newly created U.S. International Command, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

Regional ramifications: “If the reorganization happens, it will have detrimental effects on Israel and the wider region,” said Michael Koplow, chief policy officer at the Israel Policy Forum. “The Middle East presents unique challenges stemming from Iranian efforts to upend the regional order and the importance of protecting sea lanes and trade routes. Treating the region as one component of a larger command risks harming U.S. goals.”

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

DAMASCUS DEALINGS

Trump’s Syria strategy tested amid resurgence of ISIS in Damascus

Following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, President Donald Trump has taken an unusually open approach toward Damascus, seeking to usher in a new era of stability and regional integration. But that strategy is beginning to face significant tests from jihadist elements embedded within Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s own military ranks, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

Flagging concerns: “What my colleagues and I have been warning this entire year is that al-Sharaa was putting his jihadist allies into the new Syrian military without apparent measures to prevent bad things from happening,” said David Adesnik, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who added that those with jihadist beliefs were integrated in “large groups.” Those concerns were underscored earlier this month, when two U.S. soldiers and one civilian contractor were killed in Syria in an attack claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) — the first U.S. casualties in the country since Assad’s fall in December 2024.

Read the full story here.

Bonus: The New York Times reports on the Assad family’s “life of luxury and impunity” in Moscow, a year after Bashar al-Assad, his wife and children left Damascus for Russia. 

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

CAMPUS BEAT

Professor who backed encampment selected for role on Northwestern presidential search committee

A Northwestern University professor who supported the anti-Israel encampment on the Evanston, Ill., campus and is married to the founder of the university’s chapter of Educators for Justice in Palestine was tapped to join a new presidential search committee, the school announced last week. Ian Hurd, a professor of political science and president of the faculty senate at Northwestern University, is listed on Northwestern’s website as an “expert on the Middle East.” As Faculty Senate president, Hurd has played an influential role in shaping faculty responses to campus protests, academic freedom disputes and university governance questions, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports.

Raising eyebrows: Hurd’s appointment to the search committee drew criticism from some of the school’s Jewish alumni. “The antisemitic encampment at Northwestern occurred in April 2024, immediately before Ian Hurd was elevated into senior faculty leadership. At the time, Hurd was a leading figure in the Faculty Senate and publicly defended the administration’s response,” Michael Teplitsky, president of the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern and an alum of the school, told JI. 

Read the full story here.

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

Worthy Reads

Banning the Brotherhood: In The Spectator, Ed Husain calls on the United Kingdom to follow the lead of the U.S. and other countries and ban the Muslim Brotherhood. “What does the Brotherhood’s growing influence mean for Britain’s Muslims? It results in women facing sharia court trials for divorce proceedings. Mosques must send coaches to marches in London or risk becoming outcasts. For the rest of the country it has meant greater communal separatism and multiple terror attacks. Britain’s Jews are afraid to walk the streets of their country, and MPs have been attacked by Islamist extremists. The resulting terror threat has been classed by the government as ‘substantial’, with 43,000 individuals on an MI5 watch list just five years ago. The Jenkins report warned a decade ago about the threat from the Brotherhood to Britain’s national security. That menace has now metastasised.” [TheSpectator]

What the Far Right Gets Wrong: In Compact, David Azerrad examines the rise of the “JQers” — far-right influencers who push the idea of the “Jewish Question” as a means of explaining societal ills. “The problems we face are so daunting, the odds so overwhelming, that it is easier to rail against the Jews than to undertake the Herculean task of revitalizing the dying nations of the West. The JQers simply don’t have the stomach to consider that, in fact, it may well be our fault. We Americans and Westerners are the ones who squandered our inheritance, defiled our countries, and replaced our populations. We elected — and re-elected — the leaders who launched reckless wars and embraced foolish policies. They were not hoodwinked by the Israel lobby, and they would not suddenly become prudent statesmen if all Jewish influence were expunged from our politics.” [Compact]

Bank Notes: Bloomberg’s Paul Davies looks at Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan’s efforts to redefine private credit through the creation of what Davies calls a “narrow” bank. “Apollo has ridden the boom in private markets over the past decade to command $908 billion in assets and become an increasingly significant lender to the US economy, along with a string of rivals and copycats. Banks, investors, regulators and politicians are — or ought to be — watching closely for emerging risks and benefits from the model Rowan has built. He needs to get his message about Athene’s version of private credit to all of these observers and to a media he has called confused and hysterical, but most of all to the armies of mom-and-pop annuity holders whose trust his business relies on.” [Bloomberg]

Word on the Street

A new report by the Anti-Defamation League highlights several members of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team who have used antisemitic tropes and justified Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, among other issues the group flags as “deeply troubling” and that raise further questions about his vetting process, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports…

The Trump administration is recalling senior career diplomats from 29 countries, all of whom were appointed during the Biden administration; the majority of those whose tenure is being ended are posted in Africa or the Pacific Islands…

Former Blackrock executive Mark Wiseman was named Canada’s next ambassador to the U.S….

Axios spotlights Steve Witkoff’s South Florida Shell Bay club, where the White House special envoy and Jared Kushner, and occasionally Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have hosted high-level diplomatic delegations to discuss issues ranging from the Israel-Gaza war to Ukraine…

NBC News reports on Witkoff and Rubio’s clashing approaches to the Trump administration’s Russia-Ukraine policy… 

The Washington Post looks at Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) efforts to position himself as a traditional Republican on foreign policy issues ahead of the 2028 presidential election, as the Texas Republicans mulls another White House bid…

Attorney George Conway filed to run in the crowded Democratic primary in New York’s 12th Congressional District, where Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) is not seeking reelection…

Larry Ellison is personally guaranteeing the $40.4 billion that Paramount, led by his son David Ellison, is putting forward in its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery…

A New York Times analysis of donors to Trump administration projects and priorities found that Dr. Miriam Adelson’s foundation pledged $25 million to the construction of a new White House ballroom; additional donors include Palantir and ​​Lockheed Martin, which are both donating $10 million to the reconstruction effort…

Authorities in New York levied a hate crime charge against a man in connection with an attack in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood last week in which a Jewish man was stabbed; the assault was captured on camera and took place blocks from the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters… 

The Washington Post looks at efforts by volunteers, aided by Jewish communal security organizations, to identify threats to Jewish groups and institutions…

Israel’s Cabinet approved the closure of Galei Tzahal, the army radio station, after 75 years of operation, as part of a broader government effort to exert control over Israeli media; Israeli press organizations plan to challenge the decision, which was also opposed by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara…

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told leaders of the country’s settlement movement that “when the time comes,” Israel will reestablish settlements in the Gaza Strip, contradicting previous assertions by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…

The Wall Street Journal spotlights security lapses that have allowed Iranian hackers to exploit vulnerabilities in an effort to breach Israeli institutions and obtain and leak information…

Longtime Jewish public relations professional H. Glenn Rosenkrantz died at 64…

Swedish-born actress May Britt, who converted to Judaism before marrying Sammy Davis Jr., died at 91…Record producer Jerry Kasenetz, who with his business partner Jeffry Katz produced such songs as “Yummy Yummy Yummy” and “Little Bit O’ Soul,” died at 82…

Pic of the Day

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Monday in Jerusalem with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Birthdays

Israeli-Spanish singer-songwriter of Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) music, Yasmin Levy turns 50… 

Television producer, best known for his work on the 1980’s television series “Cagney & Lacey,” Barney Rosenzweig turns 88… Electrical engineer, who with Vint Cerf, invented the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), the fundamental protocols at the heart of the Internet, Robert Elliot “Bob” Kahn turns 87… Emmy Award-winning actor, writer, director and producer, best known for his work on “The Simpsons”, he is still an active podcast host, Harry Shearer turns 82… Russian-born mathematician, living in France, Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov turns 82… U.S. district judge in the Southern District of New York, he has been on senior status since 2011, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan turns 81… Documentary filmmaker, she is best known for her films on businessman Julius Rosenwald and baseball players Hank Greenberg and Moe Berg, Aviva Kempner turns 79… Retired Justice on the Supreme Court of Canada, Michael Moldaver turns 78… One of two Grand Rebbes of Satmar, Rabbi Zalman Leib Teitelbaum turns 74… Editor-at-large of The Bulwark, William “Bill” Kristol turns 73… Retired Israeli basketball player and coach, until 2006 she was in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most points (108) ever scored in a women’s professional game, Orna Ostfeld turns 73… Dean at Indiana University’s School of Global and International Studies, he served as the U.S. ambassador to Poland in the Obama administration, Lee A. Feinstein turns 66… Software engineer at Goldman Sachs, Bill Pinsky… CEO of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis, Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal turns 59… USAID acting mission director for the West Bank and Gaza until 2021, then mission director for Bosnia and Herzegovina until 2024, Courtney Chubb turns 56… Political technology entrepreneur and campaign finance attorney, Jonathan Eric Zucker turns 54… Israeli investor in natural resources including diamond and copper mining interests in Africa, Dan Gertler turns 52… Beverly Hills-based attorney and real estate agent, he is a supporter of pro-democracy groups in his native Iran, Pooya Dayanim… Attorney in Austin, she clerked for Justice Alito on the U.S. Supreme Court, Zina Linda Gelman Bash… VP of strategy and mergers at the Heritage Group, an Indiana-based multi-generational family portfolio of companies, Adam Milakofsky… Israeli singer, songwriter, musician and composer of the genre known as Mizrahi music, Dudu Aharon turns 41… COO at Israel Policy Forum, Snezhana Valdman Orlando turns 41… Liberal rabbi in the city of Dresden and founder of the Besht Yeshiva, Akiva Weingarten turns 41… Partner and chief investment officer at Gelt Venture Partners, he was an MLB infielder and played for Team Israel in 2012 and 2017, Joshua Blake Satin turns 41… Chief of staff for the U.S. Ambassador to France and Monaco Charles Kushner, Gabriel Scheinmann… Founder and CEO at Stealth AI, he is also a lecturer and research scholar at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Emil Pitkin… Brand marketing manager at Metagenics, Lauren Kahn… Israeli fashion model, Shlomit Malka turns 32… Senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, Ilan Berman… Former account executive at Edelman, India Goodman… Tom Epstein…

The women’s basketball team at Rochelle Zell Jewish High School in Chicago was practicing earlier this month ahead of its annual Senior Night when an announcement came over the intercom, presenting a special guest. That’s where the video starts — one of those designed-to-go-viral tearjerkers showing a child reuniting with their parent who is in the military.

“He is joining us after leaving the military service in Europe,” the announcer says. Team members start to look around, smiling but confused, when they see that the door to the gym is open.  

“We are grateful for his dedication, especially his daughter Hannah,” the announcer continues. That’s when one athlete, in a long-sleeve practice jersey and a ponytail, begins to cry and run toward the door. “Thank you for your service and sacrifice, and welcome home, U.S. Army Chaplain Rabbi Aaron Melman.” Everyone cheers. Throwing her arms around her father, Hannah sobs.

Melman, a Conservative rabbi who since 2021 has served as a chaplain in the Illinois Army National Guard, had just returned from a U.S. Army base in Western Poland. He submitted his request for leave back in September but didn’t tell his daughter, who was devastated most of all to learn his deployment conflicted with the pinnacle of her high school basketball career. (She was more upset that he would miss that game than her graduation.) When she hugged him, Melman took off his cap and revealed a light brown yarmulke that matched his fatigues.

“We made it happen,” Melman tells his daughter in the video, smiling. Days later, RZJHS won at Senior Night. Hannah scored four points.

For more than two decades after he graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2002, Melman was a congregational rabbi in the northern suburbs of Chicago. He had thought, early in his career, about joining the military — his father served in the U.S. Army Reserves — but decided against enlisting, recognizing that serving in active duty would be challenging as he raised two young children. 

But later, when his kids were older, the itch to serve returned. Melman was commissioned as an officer in the Illinois Army National Guard, a responsibility that typically required two days of service a month and two weeks each year, until he was sent to Poland earlier this year. That assignment made him one of several Jewish chaplains serving on the front lines of Europe, providing religious support and counseling to American soldiers — most of whom are not Jewish — who are stationed in Germany, Poland and other allied nations largely as a bulwark against Russia. 

Many Jewish chaplains serve in the military only part-time. They fit the training into already-busy schedules leading congregations and providing pastoral care to people in their own communities. 

Several military rabbis told JI that they view their mission as more than counseling the soldiers in their care and helping them deal with the hardships of military service. They explained that it’s also about reminding American Jews — many of whom have parents or grandparents who fought in World War II, Korea or Vietnam — about the value of service. During World War II, the military printed pocket-sized Hebrew bibles for Jewish soldiers. Today, some Jews don’t know anyone serving in the military. 

“Most Jews in America are not connected in any way, shape or form to the United States Armed Forces. The common reaction many of us get, when we go into the armed forces here in the States is, ‘Oh, you don’t want to go into the IDF?’ or, ‘Why didn’t you go into the IDF?’ And for the record, I happen to be a very strong Zionist,” Melman told Jewish Insider in an interview last week. “One of the things for me that I’ve really grown to appreciate is trying to connect the younger generation of American Jews into joining or thinking about joining the military and how important it is.”

Rabbi Aaron Gaber spent nine months at Grafenwoehr, a major American base in Germany, starting last summer. As a member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, his unit’s mission was to train Ukrainian soldiers, and Gaber was tasked with training Ukrainian chaplains. He took them to the Memorium Nuremberg Trials, a museum located inside the German courtroom where Nazi leaders were tried for their crimes after World War II. 

“That created a whole conversation about moral integrity and personal courage. How do you say to your commander, ‘Don’t commit atrocities’? Or how do you keep your soldiers who are angry at what’s happening and want to do things that are unethical or immoral from doing that?” Gaber told JI. “That elicited a whole conversation on a theological level about light versus darkness, good versus evil, but also then on a practical level: How do you advise your commander in a way that gives him or her the option not to do something that shouldn’t be done?”

Most of Gaber’s job, when dealing either with Ukrainian troops or American, involved assisting people who were not Jewish. 

“As a rabbi, I got to make sure every week there was a Protestant worship service happening,” said Gaber, who returned from Germany in June (and specified that he did not lead those services).

Last year, he volunteered to spend the High Holidays in Poland and Lithuania. He drove between several different bases to make sure Jewish soldiers had access to religious services, food and learning opportunities tied to the holidays. 

“I take the idea of ohr l’goyim, or bringing light to the world, I was able to bring light to the world. I was able to help Jewish soldiers celebrate their faith. If I met 10 Jewish soldiers through the entire two weeks, that was a lot. So it was individual work,” Gaber said. “In one case, I had one soldier travel, I think, three hours each way to be able to spend an hour with me. He couldn’t go by himself, so he had a noncommissioned officer, one of his squad leaders, go with him. That was the length that the military can and does go to make sure soldiers can access their faith.” 

Ohr l’goyim is a phrase that comes up often for Jewish military chaplains. For Rabbi Laurence Bazer, a retired U.S. Army colonel who is now a vice president at the JCC Association and the Jewish Welfare Board’s Jewish Chaplains Council, those words — from the Book of Isaiah — commanded him to be a light unto the nations. “And that’s not just to our own fellow Jews, but to the rest of the community,” Bazer told JI. 

A friend of his from the North Dakota National Guard once took Bazer, who served in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, to visit North Dakota’s state partner in Ghana. He sat down with a group of Ghanaian soldiers and told them to ask him anything they might want to know about Judaism. 

“Now, these are all Catholic, Protestant and Muslim chaplains from the Ghanaian army,” Bazer recalled. “I said, ‘You could ask me, like, why Jews don’t believe in the New Testament, or Jesus, whatever.’ That’s part of the role that I love doing, of being, again, ohr l’goyim, a light unto the nations, to be able to share the positive, affirming side of Judaism so that they felt enriched. It was all in true fellowship of, we’re all servants of the Divine.” 

Bazer spent his final years in the military in Washington, working full time in an active duty role at the National Guard’s headquarters. He oversaw the religious response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 racial-justice protests and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 

“I was advising commanders up to four stars at a senior level about what’s going on religiously, which really meant the moral welfare of their troops,” said Bazer, who had served in New York during the 9/11 attacks and later led the chaplaincy response to the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013. “That emotional level affects readiness, and chaplains are the key to help that readiness.” 

In 2023, Bazer was asked to go to Europe to lead Passover services and programming for Jewish troops. He led Passover Seders in Germany and Poland, and then drove between Lithuania and Latvia, delivering matzah and visiting with Jewish soldiers. 

The Seder at Grafenwoehr took place on a large lawn on the base. After he spoke about opening the door for the prophet Elijah, a symbolic act tied to hope that the Messiah will come, a Christian chaplain on base who had attended the Seder pulled Bazer aside. He pointed to a tower that stood next to the lawn.

“He says, ‘You know, Hitler used to go up there and watch,’” Bazer said. The base — now so central to America’s operations in Europe — was once used by the Nazis. “To think that back then he used to watch the Nazis do formation, and now, in 2023 we’re holding a Passover Seder on the same base in the shadow of that tower is an incredible experience.”

One year after the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, policymakers and officials in the United States and Israel remain increasingly divided over how to confront the changing landscape in Damascus.

Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, the IDF moved into a U.N. buffer zone inside southern Syria to protect Israel’s northern border as Damascus’ military and political landscape shifted. A year later, against Damascus’ wishes, Israel still controls the 155-square-mile area and has proceeded to carry out arrests of terror suspects, while also seizing weapons and conducting targeted airstrikes. 

These actions have collided with President Donald Trump’s push to broker a security agreement and end hostilities between the two countries, which the president and some experts see as a key part of stabilizing Syria — and, ultimately, the region. The Trump administration has often sided with Damascus in recent disputes, warning that Israel’s strikes are undermining efforts to reach an agreement, which the White House also views as a path to normalization. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintains that any agreement must require Syria to accept the demilitarization of territory stretching from southern Damascus to the Israeli border. However, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa has rejected this condition, arguing that it would create a dangerous security vacuum in southern Syria. 

Critics of al-Sharaa and some in the pro-Israel community have remained wary of relinquishing the area to the Syrian government given al-Sharaa’s past ties to Al-Qaida, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization that he joined following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. While operating for the group as a foot soldier, al-Sharaa was captured by U.S. military forces and imprisoned, and he later founded one of the terror group’s Syrian branches. 

“In [Israel’s] perspective, the problem is mistrust as well as hard security indicators,” Ahmad Sharawi, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Jewish Insider. “Southern Syria is awash with weapons, weapon trafficking routes and Iran-backed networks. At the same time, Israel is being asked to make concessions to a government led by a former Al-Qaida emir whose coalition still includes figures that praised the Oct.7 attacks and openly endorse armed resistance against Israel.”  

Jonathan Ruhe, a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, explained that Israel is concerned that should a deal be made, it could allow for “potentially hostile forces to encroach anywhere near the border.” In a conversation with the Hudson Institute last month, Caroline Glick, international affairs advisor to Netanyahu, said keeping threats away from Israel’s borders has become an instrumental part of the Israeli government’s foreign policy in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. 

“Defense is simply not an option for such a small country, and thus the security of each and every border matters more for Israel than most any other country,” said Ruhe. “To be viable for Israel, a deal would have to demilitarize southwest Syria and probably include real prohibitions on Turkish military presence in Syria. It also likely would have to permit Israel to use Syria as an air corridor to Tehran, or at least not openly prohibit this.”

Reflecting the views of those urging an accommodation towards the new Syrian government, Barbara Leaf, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs under the Biden administration, maintained that Israel has nothing to worry about with a normalized al-Sharaa government.  

Participating on a panel at the Middle East Institute on Wednesday, Leaf refrained from addressing Israel’s security concerns, instead arguing that Syria holds no hostile posture towards the Jewish state and that Israel’s actions are prohibiting an agreement. She pushed for the U.S. to exert more pressure. 

“There’s no other recourse but for the White House to come down very hard and definitively on the Israeli government to stop the bombing and to start making plans to pull back from that border and get serious and finish this set of discussions,” said Leaf. 

Sharawi suggested that Israel remains hesitant and has taken a “far more pessimistic view of Syria’s short-term trajectory. 

“Even if al-Sharaa himself is signaling restraint, Israeli decision-makers are deeply skeptical that his control is durable or that he would retain power long enough to enforce any agreement,” said Sharawi. 

Last month, Trump administration officials indicated that a security deal was “99% done,” with hopes that Trump’s Oval Office meeting with al-Sharaa in November could help push the agreement over the line. But talks continue to stall. 

Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s foreign minister, said on Wednesday that the gap between the two sides has grown, as the Syrians have added new demands.

Ruhe said it may also be tricky for the White House to fast-track an agreement as Trump could have less room to exert pressure on Israel.

“Partly it’s a question of how much pressure Trump can still apply to Israel, since he already leaned hard on Netanyahu to agree to the Gaza ceasefire,” said Ruhe. “Any foreseeable deal would be a narrow nonaggression pact, not Syria joining the Abraham Accords as Trump may wish.”

Antisemitism in America has plateaued after a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate incidents in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel — yet fewer Americans are pushing back against it, according to a survey released Thursday by the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate. 

About 25% of the population has consistently held antisemitic attitudes since June 2024, the 2025 Antisemitism Landscape Survey reported. That’s a notable rise from the recent past, but the survey found that the growth of antisemitic views has slowed significantly.

The survey, which has been conducted twice a year since June 2023, polled 7,028 American adults from Aug. 1-Sept. 30. It found that 58% of respondents think antisemitism is a minor problem or not a problem at all, a sizable majority, though one that has remained fairly steady for the past two years. 

“This is an alarming moment for the United States,” said Adam Katz, president of the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, a nonprofit founded by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, which recently rebranded from the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism. “At a time when national data shows clear increases in antisemitic incidents and hate crimes, our survey results show a decline in the number of Americans who see antisemitism as a major problem.” 

Katz called the stabilization of Americans expressing antisemitic attitudes a “glimmer of hope that hate is no longer spreading.” 

At the same time, the report found that the number of Americans willing to speak out against antisemitic behavior is dropping compared to before Oct. 7. 

The number of “allies” to American Jews — defined as “well informed and aware of antisemitism, already activated to stand up to Jewish hate” — stayed consistent at 9% between December 2024 and August 2025, though that’s down from 15% in June 2023. 

The number of Americans categorized as “haters” — defined as “blatantly prejudiced against Jews and tend to be outspoken about it” — decreased slightly from 11% in 2024 to 10% in 2025, though that’s up from 6% in 2023. 

Nearly half (46%) of Americans think Jews can “handle antisemitism on their own,” which has stayed largely consistent since 2024. 

Only around a third (33%) of respondents expressed belief that other people will disapprove of them if they don’t stand up for Jews who are experiencing prejudice, a number that is consistent with the December 2024 poll and slightly less than 39% in December 2023. 

Polling was conducted while the Israel-Hamas war was still underway, with many participants  expressing the view that supporting Jews might be interpreted as siding against Palestinians.

Belief in classic antisemitic tropes — such as “Jews are penny pinchers” and “Jews run the media” — are softening slightly, the survey found, although they are still higher than 2023 numbers. 

The last year has featured several high-profile attacks on Jews around the U.S., including the arson attack against Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home, the Washington shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum and the Colorado firebombing of a hostage solidarity event. 

President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, dealing a significant blow to the Islamic Republic’s weapons program, is viewed favorably by 60% of Americans, according to a newly released survey commissioned by the Ronald Reagan Institute.  

The decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear program was one of the most popular policies the Pentagon has made in Trump’s second term, according to the survey. Of the 10 policies tested, only two (using force against drug traffickers in Latin America and issuing gender-neutral standards for combat roles) had a higher net approval rating.

Despite the widespread support for the airstrikes, there is a partisan divide in support. Republicans overwhelmingly supported the military action, while 39% of Democrats did so. 

The survey also painted a mixed picture about the state of U.S.-Israel relations, finding that two-thirds of Americans consider Israel to be an ally, including 57% of Democrats. The share of respondents calling Israel an ally is down six points from the institute’s survey last year. When it comes to sending weapons to Israel, half of respondents were supportive — with a 68% supermajority of Republicans, but just 35% of Democrats. 

If Hamas refuses to demilitarize Gaza, however, 54% of Americans would favor further Israeli military action, including 42% of Democratic voters.

“Overall, the American people know who is the ally and who the adversary is in the Middle East,” Roger Zakheim, the director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, told Jewish Insider. “Even after the impact of Israel’s lengthy war against Hamas in Gaza, you still have close to a supermajority [in the U.S.] viewing Israel as a strong ally, which is reassuring for Jerusalem.”

The findings are part of a wide-ranging examination of American public opinion on national security issues, indicating a consistent American preference to maintain engagement in the world. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents said the “it is better for the United States to be more engaged” in international affairs, with just 33% disagreeing. 

Notably, support for the U.S. sending weapons to Ukraine as it defends itself from Russian attacks wins widespread support, with 64% in favor — a nine-point jump from last year’s survey. Ukraine is also viewed as an ally by three-fourths of respondents. Only 17% said they thought Russia was an ally, while 79% viewed the country as an enemy.  

When asked which country poses the greatest threat to the U.S., China held a sizable lead, with nearly half of respondents naming Beijing, while 26% ranked Russia at the top. Only 3% said Iran posed the greatest threat.

The poll of 2,507 adults was conducted jointly by Beacon Research, a Democratic firm, and Shaw & Company Research, a Republican firm, between Oct. 23-Nov. 3. The two polling firms also conduct Fox News’ polling. 

It was released in the run-up to this year’s Reagan Defense Forum, which is being held this Friday and Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s influence has become increasingly pervasive in the United States, according to a new report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, titled “The Muslim Brotherhood’s Strategic Entryism into the United States: A Systemic Analysis.”

President Donald Trump’s recent instruction to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take steps toward banning Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations came soon after ISGAP briefed policymakers from both parties and national security professionals, including Trump administration officials, in Washington and beyond about the study.

“For decades now, we’ve known that Islamism has been a problem within our liberal secular democracies,” ISGAP Vice President Haras Rafiq told the Misgav Mideast Horizons podcast. (Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov co-hosts the podcast.)  

The new ISGAP report cites authenticated Muslim Brotherhood documents describing the group’s strategy – called tamkeen, which loosely translates to “empowerment” – of entrenching itself in the institutions of Western democracies.

“It was a 100-year plan, and they’re 43 years into it,” Rafiq said. “We looked at the who, why, what, where … and then analyzed how well we’re doing against it.”

The Muslim Brotherhood’s basic goals, he said, are “to set up a utopian Islamist state and enforce their vision of Sharia-based law on the whole state, and secondly, to spread that around the world. … [Their] tactic, the opium of the masses, is to wipe Israel off the map.” 

In liberal democracies, one of the major elements of the plan is “figuring out a way to persuade Muslims, if you’re living in the West, that the Islam that your parents practice … is actually wrong and it fits into … innovation, false association with a deity, [and] haram, which means not allowed,” Rafiq said. “So first of all, change the Islam that’s practiced from within.”

The way the Muslim Brotherhood relates to non-Muslim societies, Rafiq said, is to “try to persuade others by using a faith-based identity politics which aligns with what they believe — that they are the proper Muslims. And over time, there are four key areas where they focus: One is political infiltration and legislation, the second is controlling the narrative, the media, the third is how they can increase the capacity [of those steps], and looking at Muslims and changing from within.”

Rafiq said that Muslim Brotherhood-sympathetic organizations latched onto the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to increase their influence.

“It was a time when there was a lot of confusion,” he recounted. “What organizations like CAIR [the Council on American-Islamic Relations] and others were able to do was to latch onto people who wanted to understand who were these Muslims, why did people want to fly planes into the Twin Towers … and they actually were very quick to latch onto the media, the politicians, the people within civil society who were hungry to know more, and become one of the main voices.” 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, recently declared both the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to be foreign terrorist organizations banned from the state. Rafiq pointed out, however, that the state has not seized any assets or taken any concrete action against the organization.

The difference between CAIR, which presents itself as an advocacy group for a minority population, and other organizations that aim to do the same, Rafiq said, is that “ultimately, at the end of the day, the people who set up the organization actually are part of the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist worldview, and ultimately are trying to … use entrenchment to change the liberal democracy from within.”

Rafiq also cited ties between CAIR and unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terrorism finance trial in the U.S., which shut down an organization that was funding Hamas.

“I guess other non-Islamist organizations that represent Muslims and other organizations don’t want those objectives and are not involved in these kinds of criminal activities,” he said.

CAIR has “been able to persuade and fool people that they’re actually representing Islam and Muslims and they’re the correct voices,” he said. Still, Rafiq cited polling that out of 1.9 billion Muslims worldwide, 1.4 billion reject Islamism, which includes the Muslim Brotherhood. 

“The good news is still that the majority of Muslims around the world reject Islamism,” Rafiq said, while noting that he did not have specific data about the U.S.

However, Rafiq said that the Muslim Brotherhood has successfully inculcated young Muslims in the West with antisemitism.

“Antisemitism is a key tool that they use in the guise of being anti-Israel or anti-Zionist, etc., to recruit people to their worldview,” he said.

Rafiq called Qatar “the last man standing” in the Sunni Arab world, in that its regime supports the Muslim Brotherhood. 

“Muslim Brotherhood Islamist ideology is deeply entrenched within all parts of [Qatar’s] civil society, all the way to the top,” he said. “As a result of this entrenchment … they’ve used tamkeen successfully across the board, from educating children all the way up to civil society organizations and the leadership. One can say the Muslim Brotherhood has a funding arm, which is directly the Emir and the institution, the country, the economy and the corporation that is Qatar.”

ISGAP has estimated that Qatar’s soft power assets worldwide are worth $1 trillion. The Gulf state is the largest state donor to universities in the U.S., and much of those donations are undocumented.

Qatar spreads the Muslim Brotherhood’s messages via Al Jazeera in Arabic and English.

“The English one will be a lot more palatable, but still pushing the Islamist narrative. The Arabic is downright nasty – and they get away with it, because what they’ve done is set up Al Jazeera as a corporation,” Rafiq said. “But they are 100% owned by the Qatari royal family. Therefore, in my view, when they operate in the U.S., they should [register] under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.” 

Rafiq said the West can do more to make support for the Muslim Brotherhood more costly for Qatar and discourage its leadership from continuing. One example he gave is an ISGAP report exposing Qatari funding for Texas A&M, including a contract that said all of the research projects are property of the Qatar Foundation – including those with dual-use purposes that could be used to develop weapons. After initially denying the links, the president of the university pulled it out of Education City in Doha.

“That really hurt [Qatar],” Rafiq said. “The reason I know it hurt them was that we are constantly besmirched and lies are told about us and we are targeted by the Qatari government.”

Another win, Rafiq argued, was the Israeli strike on Doha in September.

“That was the key moment in which they realized that even though they have a defense agreement with the U.S., they can’t really hide. But the downside was that rather than actually use that and push on the advantage, what the U.S. government has done is create the situation with the ceasefire in Gaza … and pushed out countries like Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. … and decided to bring in Qatar and Turkey, and that’s a problem.”

“We need more support from [the Trump administration] in terms of Qatar, and not to be taken in by geopolitics,” he added. 

Rafiq compared fighting the Muslim Brotherhood without taking on Qatar to taking aspirin when you have cancer.

“Islamism is a virus or a cancer … which is spreading rapidly, and unless we deal with it, the root cause, and we persuade Qatar to stop funding it … it won’t really make a difference,” Rafiq said.

One of the challenges in combating Islamism, Rafiq said, is that “we don’t make it easy to recognize Islamism in the same way that we recognize fascism and communism … [because] they’ve been able to push this narrative so effectively of Islamophobia.”

“Islam is a set of ideas, a set of values. In a liberal democracy, no set of ideas should be beyond critique, satire or even parody, even if they are ideas that I believe – and I’m a Muslim,” he said. “The people who are intolerant have persuaded us that these concepts are intolerant; therefore, we fall in line.” 

Good Tuesday afternoon!

This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.

I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.

📡On Our Radar

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

After their bilateral meeting in the Oval Office today, President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced progress on a U.S.-Saudi defense pact and revealed details about Riyadh’s purchase of F-35 fighter jets, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports.

Trump said the F-35s being sold to Riyadh are “going to be pretty similar” to the advanced F-35I Adir model that Israel flies. “This [Saudi Arabia] is a great ally, and Israel’s a great ally. I know they’d like you [MBS] to get planes of reduced caliber, but I don’t think that makes you too happy. … As far as I’m concerned, [both countries are] at a level where they should get top of the line.”

The U.S. has granted Israel customization rights and operational freedoms with the F-35 that other countries do not have, which contribute to its qualitative military edge. With Saudi Arabia now the only other country in the Middle East besides Israel to obtain the fighter jet, questions remain around which model and allowances Riyadh will receive.

Trump also announced the two countries have “reached an agreement” on a defense pact, without offering further details, and said he expects them to reach a civil nuclear agreement as well…

MBS’ meeting with a bipartisan group of senators on Capitol Hill tomorrow has been canceled, Punchbowl News reports, after the Saudis were reportedly very selective about which senators could attend. His meeting with House lawmakers is still on the books, and he may still meet with individual senators…

The deals keep coming: Humain, the artificial intelligence company backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, is set to announce a “slew” of agreements with U.S. businesses tomorrow, Semafor scooped, including data center construction in collaboration with Amazon, AMD, xAI and GlobalAI…

Elsewhere in Washington, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) upped the ante in his public dispute with Tucker Carlson, JI’s Gabby Deutch reports, telling the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly this morning that calling out antisemitism from Carlson and his Republican allies is necessary to defend American values.

Cruz warned that many people are not fully grasping the scope of the problem, describing a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this year where, he said, Netanyahu tried to push back on the idea that right-wing antisemitism was a threat. 

“I’ll tell you, he actually was a little dismissive of that. He said, ‘No, no, no, that’s Qatar, that’s Iran, that’s bots,’” Cruz said. “My response: ‘Mr. Prime Minister, yes, but no. Yes, that’s happening. Yes, there are millions of dollars being spent to spread this poison. Yes, that’s happening online. But it is real and organic’”…

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terrorist groups and transnational criminal organizations today, JI’s Marc Rod reports, prohibiting them from buying land in Texas and allowing the AG’s office to sue to shut them down.

Efforts to designate the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have seen little public progress at the federal level, both in Congress and in the executive branch. But Abbott’s move may end up fueling momentum for similar legislative moves out of Washington, and could also provide a model to other like-minded governors in key states…

The Department of Education signed agreements with six other federal agencies to take over aspects of its work, marking one of the largest moves to dismantle the department to date, USA Today reports.

The Departments of the Interior, Health and Human Services and State are all taking a piece of the pie, though the Education Department has not determined the future of its Office for Civil Rights…

Cornell University Provost Kavita Bala took the unusual step of disclosing details about a discrimination case against Eric Cheyfitz, a professor who was placed on leave after he attempted to exclude an Israeli student from participating in his course on Gaza, due to misinformation circulating about the case. The professor recently retired to avoid further investigation by the university.

“After [the] third class, the faculty member talked to the student and explicitly told the student that he was not welcome in the class because ‘he was an Israeli citizen supporting an Israeli stance in Gaza.’ Those are the faculty member’s words,” Bala said at a recent Faculty Senate meeting. “This is not a case of academic freedom. This is a case of discrimination based on national origin”…

In an op-ed titled, “Why I Became a Socialist,” Chi Ossé, the New York City councilman mounting a primary challenge to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), explains his recent decision to join the Democratic Socialists of America and touts his support for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as critical to his victory. 

Though Ossé appears to be capitalizing on his partnership with the incoming mayor to elevate his profile, Mamdani has discouraged Ossé on several occasions from running against the top House Democrat at a time when he’ll need support and funds from Washington…

⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for a dispatch from the conservative National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism’s first summit following its split with the Heritage Foundation.

Tomorrow, the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum will take place at the Kennedy Center, featuring discussions on energy policy, AI, financial services, urban development, biotechnology, aerospace and defense and more. A special address is on the agenda, though neither President Donald Trump nor Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s attendance has been confirmed.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of Tammy Bruce, currently the State Department spokesperson, to be deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

The Endowment for Middle East Truth is holding its 16th annual Rays of Light in the Darkness awards dinner in Washington, honoring Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), Justice Department senior counsel Leo Terrell, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, Hungarian Ambassador to the U.S. Szabolcs Takács and journalist Anila Ali.

Stories You May Have Missed

THE RIGHT’S NEW DIVIDE

‘Confused young groypers’: Jewish Republicans reckon with resurgent antisemitism on the right

President Donald Trump, called by his Jewish supporters ‘the most pro-Israel president in history,’ won’t lead the party forever. So what will come next?

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

TRIBUNAL TURMOIL

Israel petitions ICC to remove chief prosecutor from case, citing conflict of interest

Karim Khan has been accused of sexual misconduct; Jerusalem alleges the ICC’s head prosecutor pursued a case against senior Israeli officials as a distraction

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

President Donald Trump is hosting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday at the White House, marking the first time MBS has visited Washington since 2018. 

Trump plans to roll out the red carpet for the visit, which includes a welcome ceremony, bilateral meeting in the Oval Office and a black-tie dinner in the evening. Tiger Woods and Elon Musk are expected to be in attendance at the dinner, among other high-profile attendees. “We’re more than meeting,” Trump said late Friday. “We’re honoring Saudi Arabia, the crown prince.” 

The visit is not an official state visit, as MBS is not Saudi Arabia’s head of state; however, the crown prince holds almost all responsibility in ruling the kingdom. 

The bilateral meeting will feature high-stakes discussions on several key issues, including the sale of F-35 fighter jets, Saudi-Israel normalization and a possible U.S.–Saudi defense pact. Experts told Jewish Insider such an agreement is likely to be modeled after the assurances Trump gave Qatar in September, in the wake of an Israeli strike on Hamas in the Gulf state, when he issued an executive order stating that the U.S. will regard “any armed attack” on Qatar “as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.” 

Trump announced on Monday he would approve the sale of the F-35s to Riyadh, helping the Saudis secure a long-coveted deal and making them the first country in the Middle East other than Israel to obtain the advanced fighter jets. “They want to buy. They are a great ally. We will be doing that. We will be selling them F-35s,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. 

Concerns remain within the foreign policy community over the impact that the sale of F-35s will have on the military balance in the region and Israel’s qualitative military edge, which the U.S. is bound by law to uphold. Experts also cautioned the risks of transferring sensitive technology to Riyadh after Saudi naval forces conducted a joint military exercise with China last month. Israel has requested that such a sale be conditioned on the kingdom joining the Abraham Accords, however Trump made no mention of such a provision. 

Trump, however, is planning to discuss Saudi normalization with Israel. “The Abraham Accords will be a part we’re going to be discussing,” Trump said Friday. “I hope that Saudi Arabia will be going into the Abraham Accords fairly shortly.” 

Despite the president’s optimism, the hope of adding Riyadh to the Abraham Accords is likely a lot more wishcasting than a reflection of diplomatic progress in the region. Experts told JI that the Trump administration should use the aforementioned agreements as leverage tied to normalization, as has been the case under past administrations, but Trump is poised to take a different approach. 

The gap between Saudi Arabia and Israel remains wide. Saudi officials have said they require an Israeli commitment to a two-state solution as a prerequisite to normalizing ties, something that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and much of the Israeli public — is firmly against. Experts told JI that after two years of war in Gaza, the security deals are likely not enticing enough on their own and Saudi Arabia may be holding out for more concessions before joining the Abraham Accords.

Good Monday afternoon!

This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.

I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.

📡On Our Radar

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Washington is preparing for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit tomorrow, where he’ll meet President Donald Trump at the White House and be hosted for dinner with administration officials, members of Congress and business leaders. On Wednesday, MBS is expected to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Punchbowl News reports, and the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum will take place at the Kennedy Center.

Trump confirmed to reporters in the Oval Office this afternoon that the U.S. will sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, without offering details of the deal… 

In a blurring of the lines between the political and the personal, the president may have more than just defense deals on his mind: The Trump Organization is in talks to bring a Trump property to one of Saudi Arabia’s largest government-owned real estate developments, The New York Times reports…

The U.N. Security Council just adopted the U.S.-sponsored resolution backing Trump’s 20-point peace plan, including the creation of an international stabilization force in the Gaza Strip, with 13 votes in favor and Russia and China abstaining. The resolution contains language on “a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”…

The Journal also reports on Hamas’ rising popularity inside Gaza since the start of the ceasefire with Israel, as Gazans see the terror group as capable of restoring order and preventing lawlessness, which may pose an issue to the implementation of the ceasefire that requires Hamas to disarm…

In the latest fallout at the Heritage Foundation over its president’s defense of Tucker Carlson after his friendly interview with neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes, Robert George, a prominent board member, resigned today, citing the lack of a “full retraction” by Heritage President Kevin Roberts of the video defending Carlson, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports.

George’s decision to step down indicates that Roberts is likely safe in his role, for now, as its board remains split about his future, according to a former Heritage staffer familiar with internal discussions…

Trump weighed in on the Carlson controversy over the weekend, saying when asked by reporters what role Carlson should play in the conservative movement after his interview with Fuentes, “I found [Carlson] to be good. I mean, he said good things about me over the years. I think he’s good. We’ve had some good interviews.”

“You can’t tell him who to interview. I mean, if he wants to interview Nick Fuentes, I don’t know much about him, but if he wants to do it, get the word out. People have to decide. Ultimately, people have to decide. … Meeting people, talking to people for somebody like Tucker, that’s what they do. You know, people are controversial. Some are, some aren’t. I’m not controversial, so I like it that way”…

Also evoking backlash, a producer for former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) weeknight show on the right-wing One America News Network has reportedly been fired after he shared a vehemently antisemitic social media post depicting Jews as cockroaches, JI’s Matthew Kassel reports.

Vish Burra, who was a booker and script writer for Gaetz, had drawn widespread backlash for posting an AI-generated animated video last week showing him entering a “scheming room” with Stars of David on the door to find a group of cockroaches counting money, who scurry away upon his arrival. The post has since been deleted.

Burra also defended Roberts in a separate post, writing, “I will expose the vermin in the venomous coalition and their transgression against MAGA, America First, and Kevin Roberts at The Heritage Foundation. It all starts with Susan Lebovitz-Edelman,” referring to a Jewish trustee at the conservative Manhattan Institute who is married to hedge fund manager Joseph Edelman…

Political alliances are developing in the Democratic primary to replace New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill in a special election for the state’s 11th Congressional District: Gov. Phil Murphy announced he’s backing Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, his former campaign manager and a front-runner in the race, while Tahesha Way, his lieutenant governor, is expected to launch a campaign shortly.

The field of nine other Democrats also includes former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), who represented the neighboring district until 2023 and today received the endorsement of Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), in an apparent act of reciprocity — Malinowski supported Kim in his bid for Senate in 2024 against the governor’s wife, Tammy Murphy. The primary is expected to take place in late January-early February…

In nearby New York, pro-Israel Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) drew a primary challenger today: Chuck Park, who served as a foreign service officer until 2019 and as chief of staff to New York City Councilman Shekar Krishnan, an ally of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, announced an anti-establishment bid for the Queens district…

Now that he is about to assume leadership of the largest city in the U.S., Mamdani will need to receive top-level security clearance from the Trump administration, marking the first test of the new mayor’s relationship with Washington, Politico reports. Trump told reporters on Sunday that Mamdani “would like to come to Washington and meet and we’ll work something out” and “we want to see everything work out well for New York”…

⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for a deep dive into the shifting anti-Israel dynamics on the far right. 

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s White House visit will begin tomorrow with an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn and a greeting on the South Portico, before an Oval Office bilateral meeting and signing and lunch in the Cabinet Room. A formal dinner, hosted by First Lady Melania Trump, will take place in the evening in the East Room.

The American Jewish Committee will hold a webinar, “Unpacking the Saudi White House Visit,” tomorrow afternoon with Jason Isaacson, AJC’s chief policy and political affairs officer; Anne Dreazen, vice president of AJC’s Center for a New Middle East; and Michael Ratney, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, a project that was closely affiliated with the Heritage Foundation until earlier this month when it broke with the conservative think tank over Heritage President Kevin Roberts’ defense of Tucker Carlson, is hosting a summit in Washington tomorrow in response to the recent developments. The gathering, “Exposing and Countering Extremism and Antisemitism on the Political Right,” will feature remarks from task force co-chairs Luke Moon, Pastor Mario Bramnick and Ellie Cohanim; U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee; Ralph Reed, president of the Faith and Freedom Coalition; and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. Discussion topics will include “replacement theology,” the path ahead for Gen Z and “overcoming the Woke Right.”

The Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly wraps up tomorrow in Washington. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is slated to speak and JI’s Lahav Harkov will moderate a panel on the Middle East in a post-Oct. 7 world.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz will deliver remarks with pop diva Nicki Minaj tomorrow on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

Stories You May Have Missed

MILITARY MATTERS

Israel said to eye new defense agreement with U.S. as future of military assistance faces uncertainty

Jerusalem is looking to secure a new MOU – which would reportedly run through 2048 and includes ‘America First’ provisions – amid growing skepticism in U.S. politics over foreign aid

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

MANHATTAN MOMENTUM

Crowded field of Democrats seeks to win over Jewish voters in race to succeed Nadler

Andrew Cuomo carried the district in the NYC mayoral race, underscoring its pro-Israel constituency

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

Good Thursday afternoon!

This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.

I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.

📡On Our Radar

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post that Israel “prefer[s] that Turkey not receive F-35s from the U.S.,” breaking with Washington over the move that President Donald Trump indicated he was open to during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in September. 

But Leiter dismissed concerns around Saudi Arabia potentially acquiring F-35s, which is currently under negotiation ahead of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the White House next week. “There’s no indication that Israel’s qualitative edge will be compromised,” he said. Leiter has recently become Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main conduit in Washington after the resignation of Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer…

Israel is seeking a new 20-year memorandum of understanding with the U.S. when the current one expires in 2028, U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios, double the length of past agreements.

New Israeli propositions, including redirecting some of the funds towards joint U.S.-Israeli R&D rather than direct military aid, are reportedly designed to make the lengthy deal more attractive to Trump as well as the GOP, which has grown weary of foreign aid…

Trump told MBS in a phone call last month that he expects to see progress made on Israel-Saudi normalization now that the ceasefire in Gaza is in force, U.S. officials also told Axios, which MBS said he was “willing to work on”…

Israel and White House advisor Jared Kushner are preparing contingency plans in case Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan doesn’t come to fruition, Israeli media reports. The IDF’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, told Israeli Security Cabinet officials that the IDF will soon present its alternative…

Meanwhile in the U.S., the Democratic primary for the seat of retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in New York’s 12th Congressional District, which has one of the largest Jewish constituencies in the country, gets more crowded by the day. 

Shortly after the entry of JFK’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, into the race, Erik Bottcher, a Democratic city councilman and LGBTQ activist, told The New York Times he’s jumping in (and that he supports Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state). There are rumors that Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway is eyeing a bid, as well. 

Among the many other candidates are longtime Nadler aide Micah Lasher, who today got the endorsement of Comptroller-elect Mark Levine; state Assemblyman Alex Bores; and gun control activist Cameron Kasky, who posted yesterday on social media, “If you are a Democrat running in 2026 and do not fully support an arms embargo to the State of Israel … Stop wasting everybody’s time”…

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell conceded to his opponent, socialist Katie Wilson, today after last night’s ballot drop made it mathematically impossible for him to prevail.

Though the moderate Harrell led in the polls for the week following Election Day, Wilson eventually gained ground and now leads him by a 0.7% margin — just shy of 2,000 votes. With only several hundred votes left to be counted, The Seattle Times said the race is “on pace to be the closest in modern Seattle politics.”

Wilson joins New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, as well as progressive challengers who prevailed in several Seattle City Council races, as evidence of the far left’s growing popularity in major U.S. cities. However, their small (or razor thin, in Wilson’s case) margins of victory and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s win over his DSA-aligned opponent are proof the fringe still lacks a mandate in the Democratic Party…

Former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) announced raising more than $500,000 in the first 24 hours after the launch of her comeback bid for her seat in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District.

The Jewish, pro-Israel Navy veteran sent out a fundraising email this afternoon with the subject line “Chutzpah,” saying the “Yiddish term that means guts or courage … runs in my family” and she’s “not afraid of a little mishigas”…

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was hospitalized today after suffering a “ventricular fibrillation flare-up” and subsequent fall and face injuries, but is doing well, his spokesperson reported. His scheduled discussion this evening with UJA-Federation of New York about his new book has been cancelled…

The New York Times profiles Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and his path from leading a small Catholic college to helming the prominent think tank and sparking controversy among conservatives over his embrace of Tucker Carlson. 

Roberts claimed as part of his defense over releasing the controversial video during a staff meeting last week, “I actually don’t have time to consume a lot of news. I consume a lot of sports,” and “I didn’t know much about this [Nick] Fuentes guy. I still don’t.” 

“‘Who could believe that the head of a think tank doesn’t think?’ said Charles Jacobs, the president of the Jewish Leadership Project, which resigned from a Heritage Foundation task force meant to fight antisemitism after Mr. Roberts’ video was released”…

Joining the list of Heritage resignations, Adam Mossoff, a law professor at George Mason’s Scalia Law School and a prominent pro-Israel advocate, announced he is resigning as a Heritage visiting fellow today “based on [his] considered judgment” of Roberts’ video and “subsequent commentary”…

⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for a preview of President Donald Trump’s meeting next week with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is traveling to Israel tomorrow for a five-day trip where he plans to meet with government officials and economic development and high-tech leaders.

The Texas Tribune Festival, taking place this week in Austin, continues tomorrow with speakers including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Democratic Texas Senate candidates James Talarico and Rep. Colin Allred, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), comedian John Mulaney, former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. On Saturday, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) are slated to speak.

MSNBC is launching its rebrand on Saturday as MS NOW, part of its separation from NBCUniversal, with dozens of veteran journalists recruited as part of its expanded newsroom.

On Sunday, the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will present its fourth annual New York Jewish Book Festival. 

Sunday evening, the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly kicks off in Washington, with an opening plenary including former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, authors Sarah Hurwitz and Micah Goodman, CNN contributor Scott Jennings and Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, senior rabbi at Central Synagogue in New York City.

We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!

Stories You May Have Missed

BROTHERHOOD PARADOX

Israel’s neighbors have banned the Muslim Brotherhood, but Israel hasn’t. Why not?

One of its branches is banned for Hamas ties. The other sits in the Knesset

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

WOOD-N’T TAKE IT

Another Maine Democrat takes page from Platner playbook

Jordan Wood, now running to succeed Rep. Jared Golden, said he won’t take money from AIPAC in his newly launched House campaign

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

Good Wednesday afternoon!

This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.

I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.

📡On Our Radar

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

U.S. and Saudi officials are working to finalize a defense pact between the two countries ahead of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Washington next week, Axios reports. The agreement would reportedly contain similar guarantees to those Qatar received from the U.S. last month, with the Saudis also looking to purchase a weapons package that would include F-35 fighter jets. 

The Trump administration also told the Saudis that it would like to see progress made on Saudi-Israel normalization, U.S. officials said. The negotiations on these deals quietly brought White House advisor Jared Kushner to Riyadh over the weekend and the Saudi defense minister to the U.S. earlier this week…

Jordan Wood, a former congressional aide and Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, announced that he is switching his candidacy to now run for the House in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, where Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) has said he will not seek reelection. 

Wood joined his fellow Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner in vowing not to accept support from AIPAC, saying in an interview last week, “There’s a tremendous amount of distrust right now among Democratic primary voters that the money that AIPAC has put into our political system has affected our priorities when it comes to foreign aid to Israel”…

Another shifting race is New York’s 17th Congressional District, where Jessica Reinmann, a Democratic nonprofit executive who was challenging Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), dropped out of the Democratic primary today and endorsed Cait Conley.

An Army veteran with extensive counterterrorism experience in the Middle East, Conley told Jewish Insider in April about her commitment to Israel’s security and concerns around threats posed by Iran.

With her background in national security, Conley is viewed as having the strongest profile to win back the swing seat for the party, according to Democratic sources familiar with the race.…

The Wall Street Journal reports on financial gains made by U.S. businesses over the two-year Israel-Hamas war; out of the $32 billion of military-related sales the U.S. has greenlit to Israel since October 2023, $19.3 billion is through contracts with Boeing, Lockheed Martin has secured $743 million, Caterpillar secured $295 million, and more…

An Israeli-founded AI cybersecurity company, Tenzai, founded just six months ago, came out of stealth yesterday with a $75 million seed round. Its technology, which finds hackable vulnerabilities in code, drew support from major venture capital firms including Greylock Partners, Lux Capital and Battery Ventures…

Israel reopened the Zikim border crossing into Gaza today to facilitate increased food and humanitarian aid flow, as part of its compliance with the ongoing ceasefire agreement with Hamas…

After being heckled by anti-Israel protesters at a podcast taping earlier this week, former Vice President Kamala Harris paused the conversation to tell the audience: “A lot of what this process has been for me has been about reflection. Look, we should’ve done more as an administration. We should’ve spoken publicly about our criticism of the way that Netanyahu and his government were executing this war.”

“We had more levers in terms of leverage that we did not use. … But let’s be very clear, that the inhuman nature of what has happened to the Palestinian people in Gaza, the innocent civilians, the extent of hunger, famine, suffering, death, is something that we must acknowledge,” Harris continued…

⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for reporting on the status of the Muslim Brotherhood under Israeli law.

The U.S. House is expected to approve a spending package to reopen the government this evening, which would fund the government through Jan. 30.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is holding a hearing tomorrow morning on religious freedom in Syria during the country’s transition out of dictatorship.

The DP World Tour golf championship kicks off in Dubai, UAE, tomorrow.

Stories You May Have Missed

NEXT STEPS

After Mamdani win, socialists look to challenge Democratic incumbents in NYC

Pro-Israel Democratic Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Ritchie Torres and Dan Goldman are facing long-shot challengers from the far left

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

HISTORY LESSONS

Clintons tie Trump’s Gaza peace plan to Oslo Accords in Rabin memorial discussion

Former President Bill Clinton invoked slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s ‘law’: ‘We will fight terror as if there are no negotiations. We will negotiate as if there is no terror’

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

Good Tuesday afternoon!

This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.

I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.

📡On Our Radar

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed sidestepped a question about Israel’s right to exist during an interview with the anti-Israel media outlet Zeteo last week, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports. 

Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan asked El-Sayed how he would respond if and when he faces questions on the campaign trail about whether he supports Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Pressed after initially dodging the question, El-Sayed said, “Israel exists. Palestine doesn’t. And so I always wonder why nobody asks me why Palestine doesn’t have a right to exist.”

El-Sayed also dismissed AIPAC donors as “MAGA billionaires throwing their money around to try to dictate the outcome for a Democratic primary,” though AIPAC has not yet endorsed a candidate in the Michigan Senate race…

Chi Ossé, a far-left Gen Z New York City councilman, is planning to launch a primary challenge to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), The New York Times reports, despite discouragement from his ideological ally, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who clinched Jeffries’ endorsement shortly before the general election. Ossé’s insistence on running reportedly caused him to be disinvited from Mamdani’s election night party… 

Elsewhere in New York, Bruce Blakeman, the first Jewish executive of Nassau County who just won reelection last week, is considering mounting a bid for governor, he told Politico, where he would face off against Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) in the GOP primary. Both are allies of President Donald Trump; Blakeman said he “told [Trump] that I was interested, and he didn’t discourage me. And I think he’s had the same conversation with Elise. I think the president is going to play it out and see what happens at the convention”…

Also throwing her hat in the ring, former Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), a moderate Jewish Democrat with a strong pro-Israel record, plans to launch a comeback campaign tomorrow, Punchbowl reports. Luria would likely be the front-runner in the already crowded Democratic primary to win back Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District from Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA), who defeated her in 2022…

Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs and longtime advisor and confidante to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, resigned from his post today after three years in the role, JI’s Tamara Zieve reports. “This government will be remembered both for the October 7 attack and for its management of the two-year, seven-front war that followed,” Dermer wrote in his resignation letter. Israeli media had reported for months that Dermer’s departure was expected.

Dermer has led Israel’s ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations since February and is expected to stay on as Netanyahu’s envoy to continue handling the future of the Gaza portfolio, political sources recently told JI… 

The State Department denied reports today that White House advisor Jared Kushner met with Gaza militia leader Yasser Abu Shabab to discuss ceasefire issues including dozens of Hamas terrorists still “stuck” in tunnels on the Israeli side of the ceasefire lines, though U.S. officials told Axios Kushner did speak with Netanyahu about the issue during their meeting in Jerusalem yesterday, and is eager to resolve it without impact on the next phase of the deal…

Saudi Arabia is set to host a U.S.-Saudi investment summit in Washington next Wednesday, a day after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the White House. An invite obtained by CBS News shows the event taking place at the Kennedy Center, co-hosted by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Investment and the U.S.-Saudi Business Council…

An undated letter from Houthi Chief of Staff Yusuf Hassan al-Madani to Hamas’ Al Qassam Brigades indicates that the Yemeni terror group has halted its attacks on Israel and ships in the Red Sea amid the ongoing ceasefire: “We are closely monitoring developments and declare that if the enemy resumes its aggression against Gaza, we will return to our military operations deep inside the Zionist entity, and we will reinstate the ban on Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas,” the letter reads…

⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for an analysis on congressional redistricting efforts and additional reporting on Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s Washington meetings.

The International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries kicks off tomorrow, drawing 6,200 rabbis from 111 countries to New York City.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama will appear at Washington’s Sixth & I Synagogue tomorrow evening to discuss her forthcoming book, The Look.

Stories You May Have Missed

BETTER TOGETHER

Black and Jewish college students explore shared adversity and allyship at DC-area ‘Unity Dinner’

Sponsored by Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance, Hillel International and the United Negro College Fund, the event brought together over 100 students in an effort to rebuild the Black-Jewish alliance of the Civil Rights Movement

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

PEACEKEEPING PROSPECTS

Concerns in Israel as U.S. seeks United Nations mandate for international force in Gaza

Israeli experts are pessimistic about the effectiveness and safety of a U.N.-led force, given Israel’s experience with similar mandates in the past

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

Good Monday afternoon!

This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.

I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.

📡On Our Radar

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

Despite the historic nature of Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s White House visit today, his meeting with President Donald Trump was kept a relatively low-key affair. Al-Sharaa entered through a back door and didn’t receive the usual greeting photo op with Trump, and the meeting was closed to the press.

The two leaders made news nonetheless: Syria is now set to join the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS, Trump and al-Sharaa discussed reopening respective embassies in Damascus and Washington and the Treasury Department issued a new order extending the suspension of U.S. sanctions on Syria for six months. 

Ibrahim Olabi, Syria’s U.N. ambassador, said the two leaders also discussed a prospective Israel-Syria security agreement. “The term used frequently during the meeting by President Trump and Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio was ‘let’s get this done,’” Olabi said…

Trump has encouraged lawmakers to fully lift the congressionally mandated U.S. sanctions on Syria, but Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), a Trump ally and the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, did not commit to supporting sanctions relief when he held his own meeting with al-Sharaa yesterday, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Mast and al-Sharaa “had a long and serious conversation about how to build a future for the people of Syria free of war, ISIS, and extremism,” Mast said in a statement, but offered no words of praise for the Syrian leader…

Sergio Gor was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to India today to unusual fanfare — he and Trump were joined in the Oval Office by Rubio; Vice President JD Vance; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; Attorney General Pam Bondi; U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro; Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Jim Risch (R-ID); Katie Britt (R-AL) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL); Erika Kirk and Fox News host Laura Ingraham, among others. 

Swearing in Gor, who used to serve as the head of the Presidential Personnel Office where he wielded significant influence in assuring political hires shared his skepticism of American engagement abroad, Vance said, “We have such a crowd here, you’d think we were swearing in a vice president”…

Laura Loomer, a right-wing Trump advisor who has historically maintained pro-Israel stances, wrote on social media today that, after spending “an incredible week” in Israel, she has “reached a firm conclusion: Israel must end its dependence on U.S. aid and the U.S. must end all aid to Israel.”

“I truly hope by the end of the Trump administration and by the beginning of a new administration in 2028 that we see zero aid flowing to Israel,” she wrote, calling it a “win-win” for the U.S., which will no longer be a “global baby sitter,” and for Israel, which will be free to conduct its wars as it wishes.

In response, Democratic Majority for Israel accused Loomer of continuing “a troubling pattern on the Right — embracing anti-Israel policies & undermining our allies,” in the vein of Tucker Carlson and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)…

Christine Pelosi, daughter of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who was thought to be considering a run for her mother’s seat as she retires, announced today that she is not running for Congress. Instead, Pelosi is launching a campaign for the state Senate seat currently held by Scott Wiener, who is running for her mother’s San Francisco congressional district…

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani named two of his top advisors today: Dean Fuleihan to be first deputy mayor and Elle Bisgaard-Church as his chief of staff. 

Bisgaard-Church is a democratic socialist who was part of Mamdani’s campaign inner circle. Fuleihan, on the other hand, is a city and state government veteran; he previously served in the same role under former Mayor Bill de Blasio and as his budget director, as well as a budget expert in the state Legislature, among other roles. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who was at times at odds with Mamdani during his campaign, called Fuleihan’s appointment “exceptional … in more ways than one”…  

Danielle Sassoon, the former interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who resigned her post rather than drop a case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams at the request of the Trump administration, has joined the law office of Clement & Murphy, The New York Times reports. The conservative boutique firm is known for its “longstanding opposition to executive branch overreach”…

The Wall Street Journal reports on Yale’s attempt to stay out of the line of fire in Trump’s crusade against higher education, including President Maurie McInnis’ increased government lobbying expenditures and a student forum where classmates encouraged each other to refrain from disruptive anti-Israel protests: “‘The only thing continuing to protest will do is to take education and opportunities away from the rest of us,’ said one post [on the forum]. ‘Ppl need to stop being stupid and selfish and realize they will gain no ground under this administration on the Israel issue’”…

Palantir CEO Alex Karp defended his support of Israel in an interview with WIRED, released today, saying, “Israel is a country with a GDP smaller than Switzerland, and it’s under massive attack. Some critiques are legitimate, but others are aggressive in attacking Israel. My reaction is, well, then I’m just going to defend them.” 

“When people are fair to Israel and treat it like any other nation, which I don’t think they do, I will be much more willing to express in public the things I express in private to Israelis”…

⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for reporting on veteran journalists Bianna Golodryga and Yonit Levi’s new book, Don’t Feed the Lion, which they will launch at Temple Emanu-El in New York City tomorrow night, joined in conversation by comedian Elon Gold.

This evening, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa will appear on Fox News’ “Special Report” with Bret Baier.

Stories You May Have Missed

SCENE AT SOMOS

Jewish leaders begin outreach to incoming Mamdani administration, sensitively

At the post-election Somos conference, Jewish officials tried to find areas of common ground with the new mayor

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

DAYTONA X DAMASCUS DIPLOMACY

The influencer couple selling Syria on Capitol Hill

JI asked senior New York Democratic officials and Jewish community leaders to discuss the top threats that a Mamdani administration could pose to Jewish life in the city

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

Good Thursday afternoon!

This P.M. briefing is reserved for our premium subscribers like you — offering a forward-focused read on what we’re tracking now and what’s coming next.

I’m Danielle Cohen-Kanik, U.S. editor at Jewish Insider and curator, along with assists from my colleagues, of the Daily Overtime briefing. Please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback by replying to this email.

📡On Our Radar

Notable developments and interesting tidbits we’re tracking

The Abraham Accords is expected to gain another participant this evening, though in a first, the country is not joining as a show of peace with Israel — since the new addition, the Muslim-majority central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, has had full diplomatic relations with Israel since 1992.

Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, is expected to announce the move at a meeting with President Donald Trump later today, where they will also hold a joint phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump administration officials told Axios that the White House wants to “build momentum” for the Abraham Accords ahead of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Washington on Nov. 18.

As far as Kazakhstan’s motivation, the former Soviet nation has long lobbied Washington to cancel a Cold War-era law that has hindered its access to American markets, and could benefit from currying favor with the Trump administration.

Leading Jewish organizations have worked with Kazakhstan’s Jewish community and government for over a decade to lobby Congress to repeal the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, and told Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov and Danielle Cohen-Kanik that they are highly supportive of the country’s inclusion in the Accords…

Ahead of Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s own visit to the White House on Monday, the U.N. Security Council voted in favor of a U.S.-sponsored resolution to lift sanctions on the former Al-Qaida leader turned president…

Also getting an Oval Office welcome, Israeli media reported today that Trump invited the 20 Israeli hostages released from Gaza last month to visit the White House in two weeks…

On the Hill, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee from both parties voiced concerns with Elbridge Colby, under secretary of defense for policy, and his office at the Pentagon at a committee hearing today — for the second time this week, JI’s Marc Rod reports.

“Many of this committee have serious concerns about the Pentagon’s policy office and how it is serving the president of the United States and the Congress,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chairman of the committee, said in his opening statement. “In many of these conversations, we hear that the Pentagon policy office seems to be doing what it pleases without coordinating, even inside the U.S. executive branch”…

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced this morning that she will retire at the end of her term in 2027, after serving 39 years in Congress where she made history as the first female speaker of the House. 

For most of her illustrious career, Pelosi has been a reliable ally of Israel and, as Democratic leader, generally managed to keep her caucus united around support for the Jewish state. But, like many Democrats, she leaned in a more critical direction during the war in Gaza, at one point supporting a call to suspend weapons transfers to Israel. Read JI’s interview with Scott Wiener, the state senator from California seeking to win her seat…

The IDF is beginning to demobilize thousands of reservists called up for duty, some of whom have served hundreds of days in the past two years, announcing that the country is transitioning from war into a period of “enhanced border security” as the ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza largely endures…

The Treasury Department announced sanctions today against members of Hezbollah’s “finance team” who “oversee the movement of funds from Iran” in an effort to support the Lebanese government’s moves to disarm the terror group. The department revealed that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has already transferred over $1 billion to Hezbollah this year…

Author Jamie Kirchick argues in The Washington Post that the “inevitable fracturing of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement is in sight, the instigator of its rupture that most narcissistic and destructive of media personalities: Tucker Carlson.” 

Kirchick admonishes Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts for failing to outright condemn Carlson’s platforming of neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes: “Stalinists and Holocaust deniers like Fuentes are perfectly entitled to spew their nonsense on street corners, through self-published manifestos or in online livestreams. What they are not entitled to is the imprimatur of purportedly respectable institutions whose reputations hinge upon the voices they choose to amplify”…

⏩ Tomorrow’s Agenda, Today

An early look at tomorrow’s storylines and schedule to keep you a step ahead

Keep an eye on Jewish Insider tomorrow morning for an interview with former Minnesota Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, who will be celebrating his 95th birthday.

On Sunday, the Zionist Organization of America will hold its annual gala, where it will present awards to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY); Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter; Leo Terrell, head of the Department of Justice’s antisemitism task force; Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon; and philanthropists Irit and Jonathan Tratt. 

We’ll be back in your inbox with the Daily Overtime on Monday. Shabbat Shalom!

Stories You May Have Missed

THE INSIDE STORY

The 36 hours in Washington that took hostage families from grief to gratitude

The story of how the hostage families came to learn their loved ones were coming home, told to JI by key players

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google

COMMUNITY CONCERNS

What New York City Jewish leaders are most worried about in a Mamdani mayoralty

JI asked senior New York Democratic officials and Jewish community leaders to discuss the top threats that a Mamdani administration could pose to Jewish life in the city

Read more

SHARE

Share options

• 
  Facebook
• 
  Telegram
• 
  LinkedIn
• 
  WhatsApp
• 
  Reddit

Add JewishInsider on Google