17 Apr
Israel, Jewish Politics & Power, Latest

Taking a Break from Battling Trump, DeSantis Heads to Israel

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. Checking the Israel Box Is Ron DeSantis running? All signs indicate that the hard-liner Florida governor is on the cusp of throwing his hat in the ring and challenging his former political patron Donald Trump for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination. These signs include DeSantis’s book tour (aka campaign stop) in Iowa and a closely watched ad war with Trump, in which DeSantis backers ran online ads calling on Trump to “fight Democrats, not lie about Governor DeSantis.” This was in response to a Trump PAC’s ad that alluded to a 2019 story about DeSantis once eating pudding with his finger while on a flight, since there was no spoon to be found. In the 20-second spot the narration talks about how...

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03 Apr
Israel, Jewish Politics & Power, Latest

Drama in Israel Makes for New Partnerships in America

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. Tough Times Help Forge New Coalitions It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks in Israel, and in Israeli-American relations. Well, that’s probably an understatement. Israel reached what seems to be the apex of its internal battle over the future of the nation, with tens of thousands spontaneously pouring into the streets last week following Benjamin Netanyahu’s abrupt firing of his defense minister Yoav Gallant. Meanwhile in the United States, President Biden did away with niceties and diplomatic decorum, telling Netanyahu that he better change course if he ever wants to see the inside of the White House again. Mounting pressure led Netanyahu to announce a temporary suspension of his judicial overhaul legislation, and he agree to enter talks with opposition leaders under the...

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20 Feb
Israel, Jewish Politics & Power, Latest

With a Push and a Nudge, Biden Shows Bibi the Exit Ramp

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. What American Pressure Looks Like The Biden administration, last week, found its voice. Its public voice, that is. Not only did the White House make clear openly and formally that America is not being attacked by aliens, but top administration officials finally said out loud what they really think about the current Israeli government’s policies. It was no hot mic incident, nor was it an off-the-cuff comment. The Biden administration, in an orchestrated and calculated move, decided to escalate its pressure campaign against Netanyahu’s government. The public offensive began with Biden’s written comments to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in which he weighed in on the new coalition government’s plan for “judiciary reform,” which would severely undercut the power and independence of Israeli courts....

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28 Dec
Israel, Jewish Politics & Power, Latest

Netanyahu Rolls Out His New Government; Jewish Americans React

Jewish Politics & Power is published every other week. Sign up for our newsletter for updates. 1. Rabbis are Speaking Out In a midnight phone call to Israeli president Isaac Herzog, Benjamin Netanyahu formally informed him that he had succeeded in forming a new government based on a coalition made up of his own Likud party, two ultra-Orthodox parties and the Religious Zionist bloc—a joint list consisting of three far-right political parties. On Thursday, he will present his new government to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and upon approval, Netanyahu’s sixth government will be sworn in, heralding the most extreme ruling coalition in Israel’s history. Bibi’s partners haven’t made this final stretch of negotiations any easier for him. As the presumptive prime minister made his rounds in the American media trying to convince an overseas audience that despite his seemingly far-right...

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