Standing next to David Duke and Richard Spencer last August in Charlottesville, I couldn’t imagine what America would look like a year later. I was surrounded by neo-Nazis and alt-right activists shouting anti-Semitic slurs—at least one with a large swastika tattooed on his back
It is an integral piece of Washington DC Jewish political tradition. Or at least, it used to be.
In Trump-era Washington, pro-Israel and Jewish conferences can be divided into roughly three categories: those on the left who gather to lament, centrist groups that do their best to avoid any mention of the president, and groups on the conservative end of the spectrum for which the Trump presidency is nothing short of a dream come true.
Explaining its June 24 decision to extend Ron Dermer’s post as Israel’s ambassador to Washington, DC for yet another year, the Israeli government cited “unique political circumstances.”
Yair Lapid may be the most Americanized politician in Israel. Well, the second most Americanized after Benjamin Netanyahu.
“In hindsight,” admits Nathan Diament, the executive director of the Orthodox Union’s policy arm, “our goal would have been better served by us doing it in a different way.”
In the nearly 20 months since the 2016 elections, two competing images of Trump have emerged in the Jewish world.
The General Delegation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization to the United States is short of a full-fledged embassy but significant enough for the Palestinians to plant a flag and to stake their claim as a legitimate voice in Washington’s Middle East debate.
