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Jewish NGOs to Host Sideline Events at Democratic National Convention
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz hold a campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, US, Aug. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
JNS.org – While presidential nominee Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz take hits from both right and left for their stances on Israel, the Democratic National Convention will feature a number of events tied to the American Jewish community.
The convention, which runs Monday through Thursday in Chicago, is expected to highlight divisions within the party on the issues of Israel and antisemitism.
Some analysts suggest as many as 100,000 protesters—many of whom support Hamas and have links to terrorist groups—will descend on the Windy City to disrupt the event in an effort to push Harris towards forcing a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas, and to threaten to withhold their votes in November’s election if she doesn’t back an arms embargo on Jerusalem.
The so-called Uncommitted movement, which lodged protest votes in droves for no candidate in the Democratic presidential primaries in Palestinian, Arab and Muslim-heavy states such as Michigan and Walz’s domain of Minnesota, garnered 30 delegates, and various media reports state that Democratic insiders are fearful of a show of dissent to Harris’s Israel policies on the convention floor itself.
Harris reportedly told leaders of the Uncommitted movement recently that she was open to discussing with them an arms embargo, though her office and campaign rejected that interpretation.
Walz, meanwhile, is coming under increasing fire for exposed close ties to radical anti-Israel figures, including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Imam Asad Zaman, also from Minnesota, who praised Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), which is led by Halie Soifer, Harris’s former national security adviser, will hold a series of events on the DNC sidelines throughout the week. A number of members of Congress are scheduled to participate in panel discussions, including Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides will also participate, as will Wesley Bell, a St. Louis prosecutor who upended anti-Israel Squad member Rep. Cori Bush in this month’s Democratic congressional primary.
The American Jewish Committee, headed by former Rep. Ted Deutch, will also sponsor several events in Chicago. Those include a panel discussion featuring Nides, and another talk by a pair of Biden administration officials.
The Israeli-American Council, which has yet to be approved for a counter-protest permit by the city of Chicago, will host a Hostage Square display on Tuesday in an effort to draw attention to the condition of the remaining captives held in Gaza.
The public display, pieced together by a half-dozen Israeli artists, is being held on a private lot in the shadow of the United Center—the convention’s host arena—and therefore does not require a permit.
In contrast to last month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which highlighted the party’s relationship with Israel and featured a number of speakers discussing the state of antisemitism, the Democrats have not announced any focus on Israel for Chicago.
Doug Emhoff, Harris’s Jewish husband, is set to keynote on Tuesday. Republican nominee Donald Trump recently denigrated Emhoff’s Jewishness, calling him a “crappy Jew,” while critiquing American Jews who vote Democratic.
The Republican Jewish Coalition has issued a “Praise Israel” challenge, saying it would donate 1,800 trees to the Jewish state in honor of anyone who would address the Democratic convention from the main stage and ask the crowd to cheer for Israel.
The post Jewish NGOs to Host Sideline Events at Democratic National Convention first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Readies for a Nationwide Strike on Sunday
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are calling on for a general strike to be held on Sunday in an effort to compel the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal with Hamas for the release of their loved ones and a ceasefire. According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, of whom 20 are believed to be alive.
The October 7 Council and other groups representing bereaved families of hostages and soldiers who fell since the start of the war declared they were “shutting down the country to save the soldiers and the hostages.”
While many businesses said they would join the strike, Israel’s largest labor federation, the Histadrut, has declined to participate.
Some of the country’s top educational institutions, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, declared their support for the strike.
“We, the members of the university’s leadership, deans, and department heads, hereby announce that on Sunday, each and every one of us will participate in a personal strike as a profound expression of solidarity with the hostage families,” the Hebrew University’s deal wrote to students.
The day will begin at 6:29 AM, to commemorate the start of the October 7 attack, with the first installation at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Further demonstrations are planned at dozens of traffic intersections.
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Netanyahu ‘Has Become a Problem,’Says Danish PM as She Calls for Russia-Style Sanctions Against Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
i24 News – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a “problem,” his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen said Saturday, adding she would try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza war.
“Netanyahu is now a problem in himself,” Frederiksen told Danish media, adding that the Israeli government is going “too far” and lashing out at the “absolutely appalling and catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza and announced new homes in the West Bank.
“We are one of the countries that wants to increase pressure on Israel, but we have not yet obtained the support of EU members,” she said, specifying she referred to “political pressure, sanctions, whether against settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole.”
“We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect.”
The devastating war in Gaza began almost two years ago, with an incursion into Israel of thousands of Palestinian armed jihadists, who perpetrated the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
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As Alaska Summit Ends With No Apparent Progress, Zelensky to Meet Trump on Monday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the press conference after the opening session of Crimea Platform conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, 23 August 2023. The Crimea Platform – is an international consultation and coordination format initiated by Ukraine. OLEG PETRASYUK/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – After US President Donald Trump hailed the “great progress” made during a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he was set to meet Trump on Monday at the White House.
“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway,” Trump told reporters during a joint press conference after the meeting.
Many observers noted, however, that the subsequent press conference was a relatively muted affair compared to the pomp and circumstance of the red carpet welcome, and the summit produced no tangible progress.
Trump and Putin spoke briefly, with neither taking questions, and offered general statements about an “understanding” and “progress.”
Putin, who spoke first, agreed with Trump’s long-repeated assertion that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine in 2022 had Trump been president instead of Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump said “many points were agreed to” and that “just a very few” issues were left to resolve, offering no specifics and making no reference to the ceasefire he’s been seeking.