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Brad Ausmus and Kevin Youkilis join Team Israel coaching staff for 2023 World Baseball Classic
(JTA) — Former MLB All-Stars Brad Ausmus and Kevin Youkilis have joined Team Israel as coaches ahead of the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
The team’s manager, Ian Kinsler, a former Jewish MLB All-Star himself — and a former Team Israel player — announced the news Tuesday on the Flippin’ Bats baseball podcast hosted by Ben Verlander, an analyst and former minor leaguer (and brother of ace pitcher Justin Verlander).
“There’s going to be some guys with some great experience that I can lean on a little bit and I just think it’s going to be a great tournament,” said Kinsler, a former second baseman and World Series champion who acknowledged that he is nervous to manage for the first time.
WBC NEWS – ISRAEL
Israel manager Ian Kinsler named 3 coaches who will be joining the staff for the World Baseball Classic:
Kevin Youkilis – hitting coach
Brad Ausmus
Jerry Narron
(@FlippinBatsPod) pic.twitter.com/SuMxZQgZTG
— Shawn (@Shawn_Spradling) December 29, 2022
Ausmus, himself a former Team Israel manager, has five years of experience as a manager in the big leagues. He coached Kinsler on the Detroit Tigers from 2014 to 2017 and also helmed the Los Angeles Angels in 2019. Over the course of an 18-year playing career, Ausmus won three Gold Glove awards for his defense.
Growing up, Ausmus occasionally celebrated the holidays with his mother’s side of the family, but he has said that coaching Team Israel brought him more in touch with his Jewish roots.
The fan favorite Youkilis was an accomplished big-league hitter during his 10-year MLB career, spent primarily with the Boston Red Sox. He won two World Series titles with the Sox, made three All-Star teams and also won a Gold Glove award. He will serve as Team Israel’s hitting coach, despite having no prior coaching experience.
Since he retired in 2014, Youkilis has run an award-winning brewery in California, and in 2022, became a part-time Red Sox broadcaster.
The Greek-sounding surname was not the family’s original last name; family lore has it that a relative escaped persecution in Romania in the 1800s and took on the name of a family friend for protection. Youkilis had a bar mitzvah in a Conservative synagogue.
In addition, Jerry Narron, who has 30 years of experience as a manager or coach with eight different MLB teams and served as third base coach for Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualifier, is rejoining the Team Israel coaching staff. Narron is a Christian Zionist and frequently visits his daughter who lives in Jerusalem.
Kinsler played for the victorious Team USA in the 2017 tournament, and later joined Team Israel for the 2020 Olympics. Since he signed on to manage the team in June, he has recruited the highest number of MLB players yet for the squad’s roster, including All-Star outfielder Joc Pederson and pitchers Dean Kremer and Eli Morgan.
“It means so much to the players when they wear the jerseys of their home country or whoever they’re representing,” Kinsler said on the podcast. “It just means so much to them, and to be a part of it, to experience it, the energy, the environment, was just incredible.”
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The post Brad Ausmus and Kevin Youkilis join Team Israel coaching staff for 2023 World Baseball Classic appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Exclusive: Israeli Officials Harshly Critical of Steve Witkoff’s Influence on US Policy on Gaza, Iran, i24NEWS Told
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Amid growing disagreements with the Trump administration over the composition of the Board of Peace for Gaza and the question of a strike on Iran, officials in Israel point to a key figure behind decisions seen as running counter to Israeli interests: Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
The officials mention sustained dissatisfaction with Witkoff. Sources close to the PM Netanyahu told i24NEWS on Saturday evening: “For several months now, the feeling has been that envoy Steve Witkoff has strong ties, for his own reasons, across the Middle East, and that at times the Israeli interest does not truly prevail in his decision-making.”
This criticism relates both to the proposed inclusion of Turkey and Qatar in Gaza’s governing bodies and to the Iranian threat. A senior Israeli official put it bluntly: “If it turns out that he is among those blocking a strike on Iran, that is far more than a coincidence.”
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EU Warns of Downward Spiral After Trump Threatens Tariffs Over Greenland
European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Yves Herman
European Union leaders on Saturday warned of a “dangerous downward spiral” over US President Donald Trump‘s vow to implement increasing tariffs on European allies until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Antonio Costa said in posts on X.
The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said tariffs would hurt prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, while distracting the EU from its “core task” of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” Kallas said on X.
“Tariffs risk making Europe and the United States poorer and undermine our shared prosperity. If Greenland’s security is at risk, we can address this inside NATO.”
Ambassadors from the European Union’s 27 countries will convene on Sunday for an emergency meeting to discuss their response to the tariff threat.
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Israel Says US Gaza Executive Board Composition Against Its Policy
FILE PHOTO: Displaced Palestinians shelter at a tent camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 14, 2026. REUTERS/Haseeb Alwazeer/File Photo
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday that this week’s Trump administration announcement on the composition of a Gaza executive board was not coordinated with Israel and ran counter to government policy.
It said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar would raise the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The statement did not specify what part of the board’s composition contradicted Israeli policy. An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment.
The board, unveiled by the White House on Friday, includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Israel has repeatedly opposed any Turkish role in Gaza.
Other members of the executive board include Sigrid Kaag, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process; an Israeli‑Cypriot billionaire; and a minister from the United Arab Emirates, which established relations with Israel in 2020.
Washington this week also announced the start of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s plan, announced in September, to end the war in Gaza. This includes creating a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in the enclave.
The first members of the so-called Board of Peace – to be chaired by Trump and tasked with supervising Gaza’s temporary governance – were also named. Members include Rubio, billionaire developer Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.