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Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell visit Israel and meet with Netanyahu amid looming crises
(JTA) — Judging from the photos and the tweets, it looked like a set of normal Congressional delegations to Israel: Senators posing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S. ambassador declaring that “Bipartisanship is alive and well in Israel!!” Pledges of mutual support amid external threats. Sen. Chuck Schumer standing arm-in-arm with Netanyahu, grinning.
But these are not normal times in Israel, where the Netanyahu government is advancing legislation to sap the power of the judiciary, drawing hundreds of thousands of people into the streets in protest. On top of that, a wave of violence is cresting over Israel and the West Bank: An Israeli raid on militants in the West Bank city of Nablus this week killed 11 Palestinians, and the State Department said it was “deeply concerned.”
Both of those crises were crescendoing as Schumer, the Jewish Democrat and Senate majority leader — as well as the Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — led delegations of their parties’ senators to the country. A few other delegations of current and former U.S. lawmakers also descended on Israel this week.
Neither Schumer nor McConnell spoke out about the court reform, and they did not respond to requests for comment on it. But it was a subtext of some politicians’ public statements. And earlier in the week, McConnell — along with several other Republican politicians — addressed the Hertog Forum, a conference organized by the Tikvah Fund, a conservative group that is underwritten by American Jewish philanthropists who are sympathetic to the judiciary reform.
“We see you as a staunch ally on so many issues, you’re going to see here of course the internal and external issues that are on our agenda,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog told Schumer. He explicitly mentioned external issues, including threats from Iran and efforts by Israel and the Biden administration to expand normalization agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
But the “internal” issue preoccupying Herzog right now is Netanyahu’s court overhaul. Herzog has thrown himself into efforts to get the governing coalition to put the brakes on the changes and enter into negotiations with the opposition.
Schumer picked up on the hint and praised Herzog for his skills at conciliation. “You give everybody a great deal of optimism, somebody like you in this position with your talent and your ability to bring people together and listen to all sides,” Schumer said.
Biden administration officials have called for a pause on proposed reforms, which could endanger civil rights protections in Israel. In addition to being the administration’s top ally in the Senate, Schumer is one of his party’s staunchest supporters of Israel.
Schumer’s emphasis on Herzog’s aptitude at “bringing people together” was telling: Israeli presidents are not generally expected to be professional conciliators (though Herzog’s predecessor took that role on as well). The job has historically been mostly ceremonial, with a focus on diplomatic representation to other nations.
But Herzog, in a dramatic speech last week, begged to play a new more involved role, as Israel faces a potential constitutional crisis and protests against the reforms go on.
For his part, Schumer in his remarks with Herzog noted that the delegation “is a very powerful group of senators, each head of a major committee or major area and we wanted to stop in Israel.” Among the delegation were Rhode Island’s Jack Reed, who heads the armed services committee, and Oregon’s Ron Wyden, one of the most influential lawmakers in the area of intelligence.
The judiciary reforms did apparently come up in meetings Netanyahu had with a third congressional delegation, organized by an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. This delegation was solidly aligned with AIPAC’s traditional pro-Israel positions, and in interviews with the Times of Israel, two members of he delegation said the proposed judiciary reforms did not trouble them.
“At the end of the day, the changes that are made or not made, I still think that Israel is a very strong democracy, the only democracy in the Middle East, and I think our relationship continues to get stronger,” said Rep. Juan Vargas, a California Democrat who is among the closest in his caucus to AIPAC. Agreed Texas Republican Rep. Randy Weber: Netanyahu is “going to get this done.”
No one mentioned, at least not in public statements, the recent wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Releases from Netanyahu’s office were anodyne, praising the friendship of senators from both parties.
The American and Israeli leaders did openly discuss Iran as well as the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab countries. It may have been a sign that Netanyahu hopes Schumer is in the same place he was in 2015, when the senator was one of the few Democrats who opposed the Iran nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration.
President Joe Biden entered office pledging to reenter the deal, which former President Donald Trump had abandoned at Netanyahu’s behest. But in recent months Biden officials have said that talks to reenter the deal are all but dead.
Among the other congressional delegations in Israel was one including Sen. Tom Cotton, the Arkansas Republican who is said to have presidential ambitions. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is weighing a presidential run, was also in Israel. Pompeo and Cotton are both close to Saudi Arabia — Cotton posed with its de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, on his way to Israel — and Netanyahu has made clear his strong desire to normalize relations with the kingdom.
Netanyahu also met with a delegation of Democratic lawmakers organized by J Street, the liberal Israel advocacy group.
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Most Jewish Israelis Say Israel Is the Safest Place for Jews, New Survey Shows
Pro-Israel demonstrators gathered at Bebelplatz in central Berlin on Nov. 30, 2025, before marching toward the Brandenburg Gate. Participants held Israeli flags and signs condemning rising antisemitism in Germany. Photo: Michael Kuenne/PRESSCOV/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Most Jewish Israelis view Israel as a safer place for Jews than anywhere else in the world, according to a new end-of-year survey, as Jewish diaspora communities continue to face unabated antisemitism, marked by a surge in targeted attacks and rising anti-Israel hostility.
On Tuesday, the Israel Democracy Institute released a December survey conducted by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research, showing that 76 percent of Israeli-born Jews consider Israel the safest place for Jews, up almost 10 percent from earlier in 2024.
In contrast, Arab Israelis expressed mixed opinions, with 32 percent saying Israel was safer for Arabs than abroad, 35 percent saying life abroad was safer, and 29 percent saying both were equally safe.
The survey also found that most Jewish respondents believe Israel should work with foreign governments to protect Jewish communities, deploy official emissaries — representatives who coordinate with local authorities — and play an active role in planning security for Jewish events.
Half of respondents also backed financial aid for the Jewish diaspora, representing the most widely supported option in the survey.
Jewish communities around the world, especially in Europe, have faced a troubling surge in antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel sentiment since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Jewish leaders have consistently called on authorities to take swift action against the rising wave of targeted attacks and anti-Jewish hate crimes, ranging from the vandalism of murals and businesses to violent physical assaults, that their communities continue to face.
With global antisemitism continuing to skyrocket, Israel recorded a surge in Jewish immigration from Western nations in 2025, despite an overall decline in Jews abroad moving to their ancient homeland.
According to data from Israel’s Immigration and Absorption Ministry, over 21,900 Jews from more than 100 countries arrived last year amid ongoing hostility abroad, a decline of roughly one-third from 2024, largely driven by a sharp drop in Russian emigration.
However, aliyah – the process of Jews immigrating to Israel – from the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and other Western countries surged sharply in 2025. Continuing a steady upward trend, arrivals from France jumped 45 percent last year to 3,300, up from 2,200 in 2024, while immigration from the UK rose almost 20 percent to 840 immigrants.
Ministry data also showed 420 newcomers from Canada, 220 from South Africa, and 180 from Australia.
These latest figures come as Jewish communities worldwide warn of escalating threats in the wake of a deadly attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that left 15 dead and at least 40 injured.
Last year, a string of deadly terrorist attacks also targeted Jewish communities abroad, including the Yom Kippur assault in Manchester that killed two Jewish men, the firebombing of a march for Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado – which killed one and injured 13 – and the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, DC.
According to Nefesh B’Nefesh (NBN), a nonprofit that promotes and facilitates aliyah from the US and Canada, overall North American immigration rose about 12 percent in 2025 to 4,150 new arrivals, the highest annual total the organization has seen in four years.
However, even as antisemitic incidents worldwide reach levels not seen in decades following the Oct. 7 atrocities, Jews and Israelis continue to emigrate to Europe, reshaping the heart of today’s Jewish diaspora.
Despite an increasingly hostile social and political climate, Jewish life in much of Europe is not shrinking. In some places, it is holding steady — and in others, growing.
According to recent demographic reports, Israeli immigrant communities in Europe are among the fastest-growing Jewish communities in the world.
Europe is home to nearly 30 percent of all Israelis living outside the country — roughly 190,000 to 200,000 people — with their population steadily increasing across the continent, according to a report from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR).
JPR data shows that Israel-born Jews now make up nearly 50 percent of the Jewish population in Norway, 41 percent in Finland, and over 20 percent in Bulgaria, Ireland, Spain, and Denmark.
Over the past decade, the number of Israeli-born Jews has grown significantly in Baltic countries (135 percent), in Ireland (95 percent), in Bulgaria (78 percent), in the Czech Republic (74 percent), in Spain (39 percent), in the Netherlands (36 percent), in Germany (34 percent), and in the UK (27 percent).
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Actor Proposes Casting Anti-Israel Star Melissa Barrera to Replace Gal Gadot in Next ‘Wonder Woman’ Film
(L-R) Simu Liu and Melissa Barrera attend ‘The Copenhagen Test’ Season 2025 New York Screening, at the Whitby, New York, NY, December 16, 2025. Photo: Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Canadian actor Simu Liu said he thinks Mexican actress Melissa Barrera, his costar on “The Copenhagen Test,” would be a great Wonder Woman to replace Israeli actress Gal Gadot in the upcoming DC Universe film by James Gunn about Diana Prince.
“James Gunn or anybody else out there, I think she really pushes herself,” said Liu, who starred in Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” during a recent interview with JoBlo. “There were a couple of moments during stunt training where I was like ‘That’s Wonder Woman-esque.’ I’m just throwing it out there. I don’t know who’s watching or listening to this interview, but I just think she’s a total badass. And she puts in the work.”
Barrera came under fire in November 2023 for sharing posts on social media that accused Israel of genocide and criticized the Jewish state during its war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, following their deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7 of that year. The actress uploaded posts on Instagram that described Israel as a “colonized” land and suggested that the Jewish state controls the media. She reshared a post that accused Israel of “genocide and ethnic cleansing,” and also shared posts from other accounts that featured messages calling for “every civil institution” to boycott the country. She additionally shared a post that includes claims about manipulating facts related to the Holocaust “to boost the Israeli arms industry,” according to the BBC.
“Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp,” Barrera wrote in one post on her Instagram Story in 2023. “Cornering everyone together, with no where to go, no electricity no water … People have learnt nothing from our histories. And just like our histories, people are still silently watching it all happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING [sic].”
Barrera was fired from the film “Scream 7” following her social media posts against Israel. In a statement to Variety magazine, a spokesman for the movie’s production company Spyglass said its stance was “unequivocally clear.”
“We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech,” the statement noted.
Hours after her firing was announced, Barrera shared a statement on Instagram claiming that she condemns antisemitism and Islamophobia, and all forms of hate and prejudice.
“Every person on this earth … deserves equal human rights, dignity and, of course, freedom,” she added. “I believe a group of people are NOT their leadership, and that no governing body should be above criticism. I pray day and night for no more deaths, for no more violence, and for peaceful co-existence. I will continue to speak out for those that need it most and continue to advocate for peace and safety, for human rights and freedom. Silence is not an option for me.”
Barrera and Liu were among the the many celebrities who signed an open letter by Artists4Ceasefire in October 2023 that called for an immediate ceasefire to end the Israel-Hamas war, a release of the hostages taken by the terrorist organization after its invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, and an end to “the bombing in Gaza.” The letter makes no mention of the Hamas terrorist organization by name, which slaughtered 1,400 Israelis, took more than 200 civilian hostages from Israel and led to the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Liu is not the first to nominate Barrera as the next Wonder Woman. Several publications have ranked her among the top contenders for the role, and she addressed the topic in an interview with the online publication A Shot Magazine in April 2025.
“I think whoever gets the role, I just hope that they can embody the essence of the character because I think that those movies, whether they’re Marvel or DC, their reach is so big,” she said. “And because those artists that get those roles will inevitably get a built-in fanbase and have the eyes and the ears of so many people, I think that it would be nice if they did something actually positive with the influence that they have to at least be a good example of the kind of human being that you wanna be in the world, instead of just using it for self-serving purposes.”
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Rights Groups Say At Least 25 Dead in Iran Protests
A man walks near an anti-US and anti-Israeli billboard displayed on a building in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 4, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
At least 25 people have been killed in Iran during the first nine days of protests that started in the bazaar of Tehran over the plunging value of the currency and soaring inflation, according to rights groups.
The authorities have acknowledged the economic hardships but accused networks linked to foreign powers of stoking the protests. On Tuesday, Iran‘s police chief vowed to “deal with the last of these rioters.”
The shopkeepers’ protest continued on Tuesday in the bazaar, with about 150 people focusing on economic demands, Iran‘s Fars news agency reported.
The protests have spread to some cities in western and southern Iran but do not match the scale of unrest that swept the nation in 2022-23 over the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in the custody of morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.
However, even though smaller, these protests have quickly expanded from an economic focus to broader frustrations, with some protesters chanting against the country’s clerical rulers.
MORE THAN 1,000 ARRESTED, RIGHTS GROUPS SAY
Iran also remains under international pressure, with US President Donald Trump threatening on Friday to come to the aid of protesters if security forces fired on them. Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed not to “yield to the enemy.”
Hengaw, a Kurdish Iranian rights group, put the death toll at 25, including four under 18. It said more than 1,000 had been arrested. HRANA, a network of rights activists, said at least 29 had been killed, including two law enforcement agents, in addition to 1,203 arrests, as of Jan. 5.
Reuters has not been able to independently verify the numbers. Iranian authorities have not given a death toll for protesters, but have said at least two members of the security services have died and more than a dozen have been injured.
Authorities have attempted to maintain a dual approach to the unrest, saying protests over the economy are legitimate and will be met by dialogue, while meeting some demonstrations with tear gas amid violent street confrontations.
The police chief, Ahmadreza Radan, was quoted on Tuesday by state media as saying they had drawn a distinction between protesters and what he called rioters, the latter facing arrests on site or following identification by intelligence units.
“I pledge that we will deal with the last of these rioters. It is still time for those who were deceived by foreign services to identify themselves and draw on the Islamic Republic’s greatness,” Radan said.
WITNESS REPORTS HEAVY POLICE PRESENCE
Fars said Tuesday’s gathering of shopkeepers on Saadi street in Tehran ended without “expanding the police’s presence.”
Mohammad, 63, a jewelry shop owner in the bazaar, told Reuters there was a heavy presence of riot police and plainclothes security forces inside and around the area.
“They were forcing shopkeepers who were on strike to open their shops. I did not see it myself, but I heard there were clashes outside the bazaar and police fired tear gas,” he told Reuters by phone. He declined to give his family name.
Footage shared on Telegram on Tuesday by Vahid Online, which posts videos of the protests to more than 650,000 followers, appeared to show dozens of security forces on motorbikes patrolling the street and the unidentified person who took the clip can be heard saying the security forces had fired tear gas.
Reuters confirmed that the video was filmed on Saadi street but could not verify the exact date when it was taken.
GOVERNMENT PROMISES REFORMS TO PROTECT PURCHASING POWER
President Masoud Pezeshkian has promised reforms to help stabilize the monetary and banking systems and protect purchasing power.
The government has announced a subsidy reform, removing preferential currency exchange rates for importers in favor of direct transfers to Iranians to boost their purchasing power for essential goods. The measure will come into force on Jan. 10.
The central bank chief was also replaced on Dec. 29.
The rial fell further to 1,489,500 on Tuesday, representing a 4% fall since the protests started.