Uncategorized
Sen. Dianne Feinstein will not run again following more than 30 years in office
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Jewish Democrat from California who has been in office for more than three decades, will not run in 2024.
“I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024, but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends,” she said Tuesday in a statement.
Feinstein, 89, has been in the Senate since 1992 and has been closely watched in recent years because of concerns about her health and declining mental acuity. She stepped down as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee in November 2020 because of those concerns, although within weeks she said she had no intentions of leaving the Senate. Feinstein is the Senate’s oldest sitting member, and is its longest-serving Jew currently in office.
Anticipating Feinstein’s departure, two Democratic U.S. representatives have already declared their intention to run for her seat: Katie Porter and Adam Schiff, who is Jewish, and who told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he will continue Feinstein’s commitment to Jewish values if he is elected.
“I would be proud to carry on just a portion of their legacy,” Schiff said of Feinstein and another longtime Jewish senator from California who retired in 2017, Barbara Boxer. Referring to a traditional Jewish imperative to repair the world, he added, “I would love to bring that passion for tikkun olam with me to the U.S. Senate.”
Feinstein rose to national prominence in 1978 when she was the president of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco and found the body of Harvey Milk. Milk, who was Jewish, was the first openly gay elected official in the city’s history and was assassinated by a former colleague, Dan White. White also killed San Francisco Mayor George Moscone.
Feinstein announced the murders while her hands were still stained with Milk’s blood. She soon stepped in to replace Moscone, serving two terms as mayor.
She won a special election in 1992 to replace Sen. Pete Wilson, a Republican who was elected governor. She became one of the fiercest advocates in the country for gun control, which she attributed to her trauma following the killing of Milk and Moscone.
Feinstein was a political centrist and a reliable pro-Israel vote, though she emerged in the mid-2000s as a sharp critic of Israel’s use of mines and cluster bombs in the 2006 war in Lebanon.
She also served on the Senate Intelligence Committee for many years, including a period when the intelligence community came under fire for its failures and excesses surrounding the Iraq War. She was the top Democrat on the committee from 2009 to 2017. At first a staunch defender of the intelligence community, she eventually became one of its most senior critics, particularly for its use of torture.
“Each of us was sent here to solve problems,” Feinstein said in her statement, which referenced work on an assault weapons ban in 1994 and a report on CIA use of torture two decades later. “That’s what I’ve done for the last 30 years, and that’s what I plan to do for the next two years.”
—
The post Sen. Dianne Feinstein will not run again following more than 30 years in office appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
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.”
Uncategorized
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.
Uncategorized
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.