RSS
Speaking to Congress, Herzog laments growing divides in US-Israel relationship

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In his speech to a joint session of Congress, Israeli President Isaac Herzog made sure to repeatedly laud the warm ties between the United States and Israel. And he got the response Israeli leaders have traditionally received from U.S. lawmakers, earning at least 16 bipartisan standing ovations.
But one of his biggest applause lines also alluded to the tension that surrounded his 41-minute speech and that has weighed on the alliance he has come to Washington, D.C. to safeguard.
“Criticism of Israel must not cross the line into negation of the State of Israel’s right to exist,” Herzog said to cheers. “Questioning the Jewish people’s right to self-determination is not legitimate diplomacy, it is antisemitism.”
It was undoubtedly a reference to comments earlier this week by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state who chairs the party’s powerful Progressive Caucus. She told pro-Palestinian protesters at a progressive event that she understood Israel is a “racist state” — a remark she later walked back, saying she was criticizing the policies of Israel’s government, which includes senior far-right partners.
Jayapal’s statement was just one piece of the troubled atmosphere that has accompanied Herzog’s visit this week. A number of progressive lawmakers boycotted his speech, and in Israel, ongoing protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s effort to weaken the judiciary have grown fiercer.
That planned judicial overhaul — a key portion of which may pass into law soon — is one reason why President Joe Biden waited until this week to invite Netanyahu to meet him in the U.S. Israel’s minister for Diaspora affairs, meanwhile, recently accused Biden of colluding with the opposition to foment the protests.
So while there were cheers, laughter and mutual expressions of support during Herzog’s address, there was also melancholy — a recognition that change was inevitable and, for proponents of the U.S.-Israel alliance, not necessarily for the better.
“I am well aware that our world is changing,” Herzog said. “A new generation of Israelis and Americans are assuming leadership roles. A generation that was not privy to the hardship of Israel’s formative years. A generation that is less engaged in the roots that connect our peoples. A generation that, perhaps, takes for granted the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
Israel and its traditional defenders in the United States are wary of what appears to be growing skepticism of the country on the American left. For the first time this year, Democrats were more likely to sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis, a Gallup poll showed.
To that effect, Jayapal’s statement raised alarm among pro-Israel members of Congress. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee pushed lawmakers to quickly draft and pass a resolution on Tuesday saying that “the State of Israel is not a racist or apartheid state; Congress rejects all forms of antisemitism and xenophobia; and the United States will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel.”
It passed 412-9, demonstrating that the powerhouse lobby can still garner massive pro-Israel majorities. But the resolution was notably initiated by Republicans, and they were the majority of its sponsors. On Wednesday, six House Democrats associated with the progressive “Squad” boycotted Herzog’s speech.
Bernie Sanders, the Jewish senator from Vermont who is the informal leader of the progressive movement, also did not attend. He did not state that he was boycotting the speech but criticized the Israeli government in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“It is no great secret that I strongly oppose the policies of Israel’s right wing, anti-Palestinian government,” he said in the statement. “We provide them with $3.8 billion in aid. We have a right to demand they respect human rights.”
Herzog also aimed to reassure his audience that the fight over the proposed judicial overhaul would not spell the end of Israel’s democracy — though he said the raucous and often acrimonious debate has been “painful, and deeply unnerving, because it highlights the cracks within the whole.”
“I have great confidence in Israeli democracy,” he went on. “Although we are working through sore issues, just like you, I know our democracy is strong and resilient. Israel has democracy in its DNA.”
In remarks to the Israeli press yesterday, Herzog also doubled down on the strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
“It’s not like the relationship between the United States and countries that are very important to it,” he said. “This is a relationship with deep family elements, with mutual concern about what happens in the United States and of course in Israel.”
Herzog also got bipartisan applause for emphasizing points that Biden does not necessarily agree with, opposing any agreement with Iran that does not cut off its path to a nuclear weapon, and principally blaming the Palestinians for the decade-long impasse in substantial peace talks.
Questions about the durability of the two countries’ bond have become sharper as Biden has urged Netanyahu to slow the pace of the judicial overhaul effort in order to reach a broad consensus across Israeli society. This week, Biden invited Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, to the Oval Office to deliver a warning about how the judicial legislation could harm U.S.-Israel ties — a signal that Biden believes he did not get through to Netanyahu on a recent phone call between the two leaders.
“Finding consensus on controversial areas of policy means taking the time you need,” Biden told Friedman. “For significant changes, that’s essential. So my recommendation to Israeli leaders is not to rush. I believe the best outcome is to continue to seek the broadest possible consensus here.”
Herzog has also focused his efforts on negotiations over the court reform, and has urged Israelis to take Biden’s critique seriously. He met with Biden on Tuesday and was set to meet later on Wednesday with Vice President Kamala Harris. They are expected to announce a joint U.S.-Israel five-year initiative to advance climate-friendly agriculture research and techniques.
“Israel is very important to the world, it’s very important to the region, it’s very important to the United States, and that must also be a consideration to our brothers and sisters in Israel,” he told the Israeli media.
One of his guests at the speech, whom he recognized, was Susannah Heschel, the daughter of the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights era. The elder Heschel is emblematic of a liberal American Jewish sensibility that has often clashed with Netanyahu’s outlook.
In one of the rare lines that got more applause from Democrats than from Republicans, Herzog attempted to show that a pluralist sensibility was present in Israel, too.
“Our democracy is also late Friday afternoon,” he said, “when the sound of the muezzin calling to prayer blends with the siren announcing the Sabbath in Jerusalem, while one of the largest and most impressive LGBTQ Pride Parades in the world is going on in Tel Aviv.”
—
The post Speaking to Congress, Herzog laments growing divides in US-Israel relationship appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.