Jewish Insider

20/11/2025

The City College of New York is facing scrutiny after a Muslim spiritual leader delivered an antisemitic tirade against a CUNY Hillel director during a university-sponsored interfaith dialogue program last week.

The panel featured CUNY Student Chaplain Joshua Medina; Muslim spiritual leader Abdullah Mady, a 2024 graduate of CCNY; and Ilya Bratman, executive director of Hillel at Baruch College, who became the focus of Mady’s hostile remarks, including an accusation that he is “responsible for the murder of his brothers in Gaza” and “disgust that a Zionist is here.”

Mady’s remarks were condemned on Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who called it “antisemitism, plain and simple.”

But the university has not issued a public statement regarding the event.

Full story: https://ji.news/4f9hs

19/11/2025

ANALYSIS | Sen. Ted Cruz has become the most prominent Republican elected official speaking out against a rising tide of right-wing antisemitism. But the weeks following podcaster Tucker Carlson’s interview with neo-Nazi provocateur Nick Fuentes have sparked a reckoning for Republicans, including some who until recently considered antisemitism to be primarily a left-wing phenomenon.

That internal tension was on full display at a conference hosted by the conservative National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. The group was until recently affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, until the conservative think tank’s president came to Carlson’s defense. Earlier this month the task force members voted to cut ties with Heritage.

The event’s organizers — NTFCA co-chairs Ellie Cohanim, who served as deputy antisemitism special envoy in the first Trump administration; Mario Bramnick, a Florida pastor and president of the Latino Coalition for Israel; and Luke Moon, a pastor and executive director of the Philos Project — took the opportunity to forcefully reject Carlson and other far-right media figures who are gaining clout among conservatives by attacking Israel and its backers, and to issue a call for conservatives to join them in calling out growing animosity toward Jews.

They don’t think enough people are doing so.

“I remember Luke, early on, said, ‘Mario, keep your eye on the right.’ I said, ‘Well, look, that’s a fringe. It’s not really important,’” Bramnick said. “But now we’re seeing a very troubling development during President Trump’s second administration within the MAGA movement: antisemitic acts coming from MAGA movement leaders.”

Read more: https://ji.news/4f9bd

19/11/2025

Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the Trump administration’s nominee to be the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, emphasized the importance of education as the critical tool to combat antisemitism during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“Together with bipartisan support, we must educate the world to respect one another. Lofty goals, perhaps, but a lesson that I learned from the Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch, as well as from my grandparents and my parents, is to do my best to impact and make the world a better place,” Kaploun said.

“We do this by building bridges through education and friendships and dialogue. We must learn from the past to protect and educate the living.”

Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, at hearing: ‘We must learn from the past to protect and educate the living’

19/11/2025

Senate Democrats echoed their House counterparts in expressing concern about Trump’s announcement of a deal to sell advanced F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who will have some ability to obstruct or slow the deal, was deeply critical of multiple announcements made by Trump during his White House summit with MBS.

Shaheen said in a statement that the F-35 deal “raises major concerns about protecting U.S. military technology and the military edge America shares with our allies” and demanded the administration “fully explain to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee why this sale is in the vital national interest of the United States.”

Full story: https://ji.news/4f72f

19/11/2025

EXCLUSIVE | Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Dan Goldman wrote a letter to Trump on Wednesday urging him to pressure the Israeli government to intervene to stop attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and to oppose settlement expansion.

The clear-cut criticism of Israel is notable coming from two lawmakers generally seen as strong supporters of the Jewish state. The two urged Trump to reimpose Biden-era sanctions — withdrawn by the Trump administration — on those involved in the settler attacks if the Israeli government does not act.

Full story: https://ji.news/4f7dd

19/11/2025

Two Democratic senators expressed concern about the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ seizure of an commercial oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical international shipping route.

The IRGC took credit on Friday for the seizure of the Talara, a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, for what state media described as alleged cargo violations. The tanker, which began its journey in the United Arab Emirates, was carrying petrochemicals through the Strait of Hormuz to Singapore when it was diverted by the IRGC into Iranian territorial waters.

“It’s like the 1980s all over again,” Sen. Mark Kelly, a former fighter pilot, said. “The first time I was there was 1989, in the Strait of Hormuz, with the Iranians doing that same old s**t, where they would harass shipping. A couple times, I felt like we were on the edge of getting in the conflict.”

Full story: https://ji.news/4f6gg

19/11/2025

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Plus, Texas labels CAIR, Muslim Brotherhood as terror orgs

19/11/2025

Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun is scheduled for a confirmation hearing to be the Trump administration’s antisemitism envoy on Wednesday, a last-minute addition to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee schedule.

Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun was nominated in April for the role

19/11/2025

Israel petitioned the International Criminal Court to remove chief prosecutor Karim Khan from its case, saying he pursued charges against Israeli leaders to distract from sexual harassment accusations lodged against him.

Israel also asked the court to cancel its arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant over Khan’s allegations that they perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza including “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population."

Full story: https://ji.news/4f3xj

18/11/2025

In an Oval Office appearance following their meeting on Tuesday, President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced progress on multiple bilateral initiatives, including a U.S.-Saudi defense pact and Riyadh’s purchase of F-35 fighter jets.

Trump indicated Riyadh may receive a similar jet to Israel’s advanced F-35I Adir model: “When you look at the F-35 and you’re asking me ‘Is it the same [as Israel’s]?’ I think it’s going to be pretty similar,” said Trump.

Full story: https://ji.news/4f3q3

18/11/2025

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a declaration designating the Muslim Brotherhood and Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terrorist groups and transnational criminal organizations — a move that some lawmakers are pushing on the federal level.

The proclamation would ban both groups from buying or acquiring land in the state and allow the state’s attorney general to sue to shut down the two groups, and potentially impose fines on those involved.

National Republicans have been pushing for similar policies at the federal level

18/11/2025

The Lebanese Armed Forces is facing pushback from two U.S. lawmakers over a statement it posted to social media on Sunday blaming Israel for flare-ups with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Full story: https://ji.news/4f3hr