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A ‘historic’ day in Israel ends with a political compromise — and big questions about the future
(JTA) — Like hundreds of thousands of her fellow Israelis, Kelly Breakstone Roth’s instinct on Sunday was to take to the streets.
The only wrinkle: She and her family have been in Brooklyn for the last two years, part of the diaspora of hundreds of thousands of Israelis living abroad. They couldn’t just walk out the door of their apartment and join the sweeping nationwide protest that ignited after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister, who had called for a pause on proposed changes to Israel’s judiciary.
So they bought one-way plane tickets, set to take off at 2 a.m. on Monday and land in Israel that evening. “It was a very spontaneous decision,” Breakstone Roth, an entrepreneur, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Sunday evening, as she ran errands to prepare her family of five for a trip of indeterminate length. “But the sensation that we have to be there has been building up for quite a bit now.”
She likened the experience to that of Israeli military reservists who receive an emergency call-up notice, known in Israeli jargon as a “tzav shmoneh,” Hebrew for “order eight.”
“This is a tzav shmoneh moment for anybody who wants there to be a Jewish and democratic state,” she said.
By the time Breakstone Roth landed in Tel Aviv Monday evening, conditions in Israel had shifted dramatically. Late-night protests on Sunday that shut down a main highway and riveted Jews the world over had been dispersed, but protesters convened again on Monday in Jerusalem, where the parliament was waiting to hear whether it would vote on a key piece of the judiciary legislation. The country’s labor unions had called a general strike, and everything from universities to McDonald’s franchises to some departures at the Tel Aviv airport had shut down.
The Breakstone Roth family poses with protest signs in New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Israel, March 27, 2023. (Courtesy of Kelly Breakstone Roth)
Meanwhile, Netanyahu had spent Sunday night negotiating with his coalition partners, trying to keep their government together despite a mounting sense that proceeding immediately with its signature legislation could plunge Israel into unprecedented turmoil — possibly even civil war. By the evening, even the justice minister who threatened to quit if Netanyahu delayed the vote said he would respect a decision to pause — one that Netanyahu made official only as night fell.
Netanyahu did not say what he had promised his partners to sign off on the pause, but a far-right minister said he had exacted permission to launch a civilian police corps.
Earlier, breaking his public silence, the prime minister had tweeted, “I call on all the demonstrators in Jerusalem, on the right and the left, to behave responsibly and not to act violently. We are brotherly people.”
Big questions loomed: What would happen when right-wing supporters of the judiciary reform — including a notoriously racist and combative group of fans from the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club — heeded a call to take to the streets, too? Would a delay satisfy protesters who have spent a dozen weeks articulating deep-seated grievances that, in many cases, go far beyond the particular reforms? Would Netanyahu and his coalition offer any meaningful concessions before resuming the legislative process in the future? What would be the cost of the promises he offered his most extreme partners in exchange for their acquiescence?
The answers to those questions will help determine what kind of country Israel will be after this crisis ends, whenever that is. But on Sunday night and Monday, the protesters and those watching them could be forgiven for taking a moment to bask in the sense that history was being made.
Thousands of Israeli right-wing protesters rally in support of the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul bills outside of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem, March 27, 2023. (Gili Yaari/Flash90)
“What we witness in Israel is a historical revolution in the style of French, Russian, Iranian revolutions and the collapse of the Soviet Union,” tweeted Yossi Melman, a journalist who has covered military affairs for multiple Israeli newspapers.
“A historic night. Each of us will remember where we were tonight,” tweeted the journalist and political analyst Anshel Pfeffer. “And whoever was not in the streets will say that they were.”
The head of the country’s labor union, the Histadrut, also used the word “historic” to describe the general strike he was supporting.
Ahmad Tibi, an Arab lawmaker, tweeted in language drenched in history. He posted in Hebrew transliteration a slogan associated with the 2011 Arab Spring: “The people want to bring down the regime.”
It’s not at all clear that the Israelis who protested on Sunday and Monday will ultimately be satisfied. Revolutions don’t always succeed, as the Arab Spring and countless other examples in history make clear. Many of the social and demographic forces that brought Israel to this moment haven’t changed. Netanyahu has survived political crisis after political crisis before.
In addition, while a substantial majority of Israelis oppose the specific judicial reform legislation that is on the table now, many still say they believe some changes are merited. Israel’s far right, in particular, still views a disempowered Supreme Court as essential to achieving its vision of expanded Jewish settlement and control in the West Bank.
Supporters of the judicial overhaul were framing the stakes as historic, too, but casting the demonstrations as a threat to democracy. It is “inconceivable that the minority will force its opinion with violence and the creation of anarchy in the streets,” declared 17 leading religious Zionist rabbis in a joint statement calling on the government to push forward with the legislation on Monday.
Yet for Monday, at least, the politically diverse anti-government coalition that has solidified over the last three months could exult in the power of the people. And at a time when some liberal Israelis are so alarmed by the country’s political direction that they are packing up and moving away, the Breakstone Roths were coming home.
“This is a critical time in Israel’s history,” Breakstone Roth said before boarding. “In terms of our daughters, we felt it was really important for them to know that we’re doing everything that we possibly can to try to make an impact.”
She said she hoped to hear upon landing that Netanyahu was pulling the legislation, if only temporarily — then turned to realpolitik. “Hopefully If he does say it, he intends it, and … we’ll be able to say that the demonstrations were a success,” she said. “And if he’s just fooling, trying to do some sort of maneuver, then it’s going to be ignited once again.”
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Iran’s President Says Tehran Will Rebuild Its Nuclear Facilities
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian addresses the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters in New York, US, Sept. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
Tehran will rebuild its nuclear facilities “with greater strength,” Iran‘s President Masoud Pezeshkian told state media on Sunday, adding that the country does not seek a nuclear weapon.
US President Donald Trump has warned that he would order fresh attacks on Iran‘s nuclear sites should Tehran try to restart facilities that the United States bombed in June.
Pezeshkian made his comments during a visit to the country’s Atomic Energy Organization, during which he met with senior managers from Iran’s nuclear industry.
“Destroying buildings and factories will not create a problem for us, we will rebuild and with greater strength,” the Iranian president told state media.
In June, the US launched strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities that Washington says were part of a program geared towards developing nuclear weapons. Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is for purely civilian purposes.
“It’s all intended for solving the problems of the people, for disease, for the health of the people,” Pezeshkian said in reference to Iran‘s nuclear activities.
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Nigeria Says US Help Against Islamist Insurgents Must Respect Its Sovereignty
A drone view of Christians departing St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church after a Sunday mass in Palmgrove, Lagos, Nigeria November 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Sodiq Adelakun
Nigeria said on Sunday it would welcome US help in fighting Islamist insurgents as long as its territorial integrity is respected, responding to threats of military action by President Donald Trump over what he said was the ill-treatment of Christians in the West African country.
Trump said on Saturday he had asked the Defense Department to prepare for possible “fast” military action in Nigeria if Africa’s most populous country fails to crack down on the killing of Christians.
“We welcome US assistance as long as it recognizes our territorial integrity,” Daniel Bwala, an adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, told Reuters.
Bwala sought to play down tensions between the two states, despite Trump calling Nigeria a “disgraced country.”
“I am sure by the time these two leaders meet and sit, there would be better outcomes in our joint resolve to fight terrorism,” he said.
ISLAMIST INSURGENTS WREAK HAVOC FOR YEARS
Nigeria, a country of more than 200 million people and around 200 ethnic groups, is divided between the largely Muslim north and mostly Christian south.
Islamist insurgents such as Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province have wrought havoc in the country for more than 15 years, killing thousands of people, but their attacks have been largely confined to the northeast of the country, which is majority Muslim.
While Christians have been killed, the vast majority of the victims have been Muslims, analysts say.
In central Nigeria there have been frequent clashes between mostly Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers over access to water and pasture, while in the northwest of the country, gunmen routinely attack villages, kidnapping residents for ransom.
VIOLENCE ‘DEVASTATES ENTIRE COMMUNITIES’
“Insurgent groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa often present their campaigns as anti-Christian, but in practice their violence is indiscriminate and devastates entire communities,” said Ladd Serwat, senior Africa analyst at US crisis-monitoring group ACLED.
“Islamist violence is part of the complex and often overlapping conflict dynamics in the country over political power, land disputes, ethnicity, cult affiliation, and banditry,” he said.
ACLED research shows that out of 1,923 attacks on civilians in Nigeria so far this year, the number of those targeting Christians because of their religion stood at 50. Serwat said recent claims circulating among some US right-wing circles that as many as 100,000 Christians had been killed in Nigeria since 2009 are not supported by available data.
NIGERIA REJECTS ALLEGATIONS OF RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE
Trump‘s threat of military action came a day after his administration added Nigeria back to a “Countries of Particular Concern” list of nations that the US says have violated religious freedoms. Other nations on the list include China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Pakistan.
Tinubu, a Muslim from southern Nigeria who is married to a Christian pastor, on Saturday pushed back against accusations of religious intolerance and defended his country’s efforts to protect religious freedom.
When making key government and military appointments, Tinubu, like his predecessors, has sought to strike a balance to make sure that Muslims and Christians are represented equally. Last week, Tinubu changed the country’s military leadership and appointed a Christian as the new defense chief.
In the capital Abuja, some Christians going to Sunday Mass said they would welcome a US military intervention to protect their community.
STRIKES WOULD TARGET SMALL GROUPS ACROSS WIDE AREA
“I feel if Donald Trump said they want to come in, they should come in and there is nothing wrong with that,” said businesswoman Juliet Sur.
Security experts said any US airstrikes would most likely seek to target small groups scattered across a very large swathe of territory, a task that could be made more difficult given the US withdrew its forces last year from Niger, which borders Nigeria in the north.
The militant groups move between neighboring countries Cameroon, Chad and Niger, and the experts said the US may require help from the Nigerian military and government, which Trump threatened to cut off from assistance.
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Zohran Mamdani, Muslim Democratic NYC candidate, looms large at Republican Jewish confab
(JTA) — LAS VEGAS — There were a number of villains at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual summit here this weekend.
Tucker Carlson, who recently hosted avowed antisemite and white nationalist Nick Fuentes on his show, was lambasted by speakers as not being part of their MAGA movement. The phrase “Imagine if Kamala Harris were president,” said with relief, was uttered more than a few times.
But the name that drew the loudest boos the entire weekend was one that, a year ago, would have been completely unknown to the room.
“Take a look now at Zohran Mamdani, who represents the absolute worst of the worst,” said Norm Coleman, the RJC chairman and former senator.
“The extreme of the party is now the mainstream of the Democratic Party,” he added, a sentiment that was echoed widely, including by the Jewish congressmen Mike Lawler and David Kustoff.
Coleman invoked Mamdani to emphasize the importance of maintaining a Republican majority in Congress, using Mamdani as an example of how the Democratic party will “enact the most progressive, radical, leftist agenda this country has ever seen” if they can take control.
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and favorite to be elected this week as mayor of New York City, is opposed to Israel’s government and existence as a Jewish state and subscribes to democratic socialist politics that are anathema to the RJC’s values.
Several of the speakers lambasted Mamdani’s 2023 comments, resurfaced this week, accusing the Israeli army of being the cause of problems within the New York Police Department.
The summit came at a moment of growing concern about antisemitism in conservative circles. But by casting Mamdani as the new face and direction of the Democratic Party, RJC speakers were able to acknowledge the existence of antisemitism on the right, while still pointing to the Democrats as having a far bigger, less controlled problem.
“The antisemitism problem exists in both parties,” Ari Fleisher, an RJC board member, told reporters. But, he continued, “Republicans have a cold. Democrats have a fever.”
“The Democrats have a growing socialism problem,” Fleisher continued. “And mark my words, the future is playing out before your very eyes at this meeting: What statement got the biggest reaction from the crowd? It was any reference to Mamdani. He’s not even elected yet.”
Fleisher said he expects Mamdani’s ascension to be “the new animating force that’s going to drive a lot of Republicans” into action.
“They’re adding to their fever, and his election will singularly tip that fever into a red-hot area that’s going to be hard for the Democrats to recover from,” Fleisher said.
The comments comes amid speculation that Republican leaders are in some ways eager for Mamdani’s election in New York, where the current mayor’s tolerance of the Trump administration has fended off some of the targeting that the president has directed toward other large cities this year. A democratic socialist at the helm of the city, long an avatar for conservative anxieties about crime and diversity, gives the Republicans a punching bag for attacks on the Democratic Party and, party strategists hope, boosts Republican odds in upcoming downballot races.
Fleisher was far from the only speaker to call out Mamdani.
Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick said antisemitism is “running wild on the progressive left,” and that “the leaders of the Democratic Party are not confronting it, with their new star, Mamdani.”
Florida Rep. Randy Fine, one of four Jewish Republicans in Congress, called for Mamdani to be deported.
“The only thing I want to see Mamdani running for is his gate at JFK on the deportation flight to Uganda,” Fine said to cheers.
“Lord help us and pray for the people of New York City,” said conservative CNN commentator, Scott Jennings.
Emily Austin, a social media influencer who’s behind the group Hot Girls for Cuomo, said “extremists both abroad and here at home are committed to dismantling” a set of “Western values” that includes ”freedom, individual rights, democracy, capitalism.”
“And nowhere is this clearer than in my home, New York City,” she said.
“He is being elevated as a serious voice, potentially the next mayor of the biggest city in the world,” Austin said. (That title actually belongs to Tokyo; New York is 49th in population.) “Just think about the absurdity of that.”
Rank-and-file Republican Party donors in attendance who’d already been worried about a Mamdani mayoral administration felt their fears confirmed by speakers’ warnings and condemnations.
“I have two sons that work on Wall Street and I’m extremely concerned about their safety,” said Valerie Greenfeld, who moved to Israel from Washington, D.C., in 2021 but remains active with the RJC, in an interview.
“They assure me that they’re fine and all of this, but given everything that I’ve heard today, I know that I’m right,” Greenfeld said. “They’re not fine.”
She added, “Coming to the RJC today has helped me realize what I’ve known for quite some time.”
Speakers’ criticisms of Mamdani ranged from his socialist views (“Maybe he should go down to Cuba and see what it’s like to see a bread line,” said Sen. Rick Scott) to harping on the Queens assemblymember’s Muslim faith. Sid Rosenberg, the Jewish shock jock who quipped about Mamdani cheering for a second 9/11 — which Mamdani’s challenger, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, played along with on the air — doubled down on that comment.
Rosenberg then explicitly shared his thoughts about Mamdani’s ascendance as a Muslim politician, suggesting that he was emblematic of a wave that he finds threatening.
“I believe there’s, what, 200 elected officials [in the country] that are Muslim, maybe 800 by the end of the year,” Rosenberg said.
“I don’t beat around the bush and I don’t care what you think about me — I don’t want Muslims running this country,” Rosenberg said, drawing applause.
“Now I’m not saying every Muslim’s a bad person,” Rosenberg said. “But when you preface something with something like that, the odds are — a lot of them are, right?”
He added, “When they take over New York City, which they’re about to do in four or five days, the rest of the country gets a heck of a lot easier.”
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