Congress’ long-delayed 2022 omnibus government spending package, released and passed by the House on Wednesday, includes $250 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, as well as  $1 billion in supplemental funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system, which had been stalled for months, and the Israel Relations Normalization Act.

The NSGP funding represents a boost of $70 million over the $180 million funding level for 2021, which both the House and Senate initially proposed keeping constant for 2022, despite a significant funding shortage in 2021. It falls short, however, of the $360 million Jewish organizations had been supporting.

The U.S. Agency for International Development announced the first funding grants on Tuesday from the Middle East Partnership for Peace Act, a new funding mechanism approved last year by Congress to provide funding for joint Israeli-Palestinian business ventures and people-to-people projects.

The first awards, announced in Jerusalem yesterday by USAID Deputy administrator Isobel Coleman, will provide $3.3 million over four years to provide training, funding and mentorship opportunities to established and aspiring businesswomen, as well as $2.2 million over three years to support small and medium business enterprises and their leaders.

ANKARA, Turkey — Israeli President Isaac Herzog was greeted with a 21-gun salute and a military band playing Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikva,” at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 1,150-room presidential palace in Ankara on Wednesday. The visit — the first to the country by an Israeli leader in 14 years — is being touted by both parties as a first step in restoring diplomatic ties.

Upon arriving in Ankara on Wednesday afternoon, Herzog, who was accompanied by his wife, Michal, laid a wreath at the tomb of the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, former President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and was greeted by Erdoğan in a special ceremony at the national palace.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday that he plans to introduce a bill tripling funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $540 million from its current $180 million.

It’s unclear at this point how much additional support Cruz’s legislation will have, what shape it could take or whether it will impact funding for the 2022 fiscal year — the Texas senator’s office did not provide additional details when asked for comment. But the announcement indicates growing support in Congress for increasing NSGP funding even beyond the $360 million funding level that has been called for by leading Jewish organizations in recent months.

The U.S. has “genuine concerns” about how the Russians might leverage their role as negotiators in the Iran nuclear talks for their own benefit in Ukraine, CIA Director William Burns told the House Intelligence Committee yesterday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has demanded written assurances that Ukraine-related sanctions would not prevent Moscow from trading with Iran under a renewed nuclear agreement, a demand the U.S. swiftly rejected. Russia’s chief nuclear negotiator also said this week that Iran “got much more than it could expect” in a renewed agreement.

Amid speculation over the 2024 Republican presidential primary field, former Vice President Mike Pence met for dinner with Dr. Miriam Adelson, the influential GOP megadonor, at her home in Jerusalem on Monday night, just hours after he had touched down in Israel for a multi-day trip through the Middle East. 

The former vice president’s meeting represents what is at least his second audience with the billionaire Republican benefactor in about four months. According to Politico, Pence was among a small group of potential presidential candidates who spoke with Adelson during the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference last November in Las Vegas.

Congressional trips to Israel can bring lawmakers into intimate touch with the knotty reality of Israelis’ lives. The experiences can be shocking, but also unexpectedly hopeful.

Take the stories told by two New York representatives, Andrew Garbarino, a first-term Republican, and Kathleen Rice, a Democrat, as they returned last week from trips sponsored by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions “pure Nazi behavior” in an impassioned plea to American Jewish leaders on Monday morning.

Zelensky addressed members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations over Zoom. Dressed in the green t-shirt that has become his uniform since Russia began its invasion last month and sitting next to a Ukrainian flag, Zelensky, who is Jewish, drew comparisons between Moscow and the Nazi regime, noting the indiscriminate killing of civilians.