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Dump Trump? No sign of dissatisfaction at ZOA gala as ex-president is honored for Israel efforts
(JTA) — In his first public appearance after midterm elections in which his Republican Party failed to take control of the U.S. Senate, former president Donald Trump headed to a friendly audience.
The Zionist Organization of America was awarding Trump a rare honor, the Theodor Herzl Medal, for his contributions on behalf of Israel.
When the organization announced the award a month ago, it seemed that ZOA’s gala would be timed perfectly to kick off Trump’s 2024 reelection bid. Trump plans to make an announcement on Tuesday, and many expect him to launch a campaign then.
Instead, the gala landed at a precarious moment for the former president, as allies throughout the Republican Party have signaled or even said forthrightly in the last several days that they believe he should not run.
But if there is trouble in Trumpland, it wasn’t on display Sunday night at Chelsea Piers in New York City, where the ZOA crowd gave Trump a warm reception and offered no indication of any debate about which Republican candidate would be best for Israel in 2024.
Trump received standing ovations just about every time his name was mentioned, as multiple presenters recited the litany of achievements that they said had made him the best U.S. president ever for Israel. They include moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, brokering the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab countries, pulling the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal and more.
In his speech, Trump traversed familiar territory, arguing that his 2020 loss reflected “something screwy with our elections” and criticizing American Jews who don’t support Israel, about whose existence he has repeatedly expressed surprise.
“You do have people in this country that happen to be Jewish that are not doing the right thing for Israel,” said Trump, who traveled to New York for the gala from his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort, where his daughter Tiffany celebrated her wedding Saturday night.
Donald Trump speaking at the ZOA Gala in NYC:
‘You do have people in this country that happen to be Jewish that are not doing the right thing for Israel.’ pic.twitter.com/MP47CzHnJv
— Jacob Henry (@jhenrynews) November 14, 2022
Other people on the program were not present. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader of the U.S. House who could become majority leader in January, did not attend.
And not everyone who spoke was there in person. Miriam Adelson, the previous winner of ZOA’s honor named after the founder of modern Zionism who, with her late husband Sheldon, has been a major funder of Republican Jewish causes, introduced Trump via Zoom.
“Who knows what added miracles you have up your sleeve?” Adelson said during her speech, addressing Trump. “What we do know is that like Herzl, your name adorns Zionist history — a history still being written and in which you will no doubt continue to play an epic role.”
Adelson did not mention that she has pledged to stay neutral in the 2024 presidential primary.
The ZOA gala in some ways represented the kickoff of that primary season for Republican Jews, one that appears likely to center on the question of whether to back Trump should he run again, or whether to throw support behind someone without his considerable baggage.
Later this week, the Republican Jewish Coalition will gather in Las Vegas for its annual convention. Trump won’t be speaking there, but several other likely contenders for the Republican nomination will be, including Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence; Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who got a warm reception at a different gathering of Jewish conservatives in New York earlier this year. The event will be the first post-midterms convening of the potential candidates.
The Republican Jewish Coalition, which endorses and supports Republican politicians, has at times been circumspect about Trump’s influence on the Republican Party. In 2016, the group was virtually silent on Trump until he won the general election, and this year, it has not backed all of the far-right candidates whom Trump endorsed, even openly criticizing one of them, Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania’s governor’s race, for his association with antisemites. (Mastriano conceded to Democrat Josh Shapiro during the ZOA gala.)
ZOA, meanwhile, says its only concern is a candidate’s support for Israel. The group’s president, Mort Klein — in a fiery speech that mocked progressive Democrats, Arabs and the idea of a Palestinian state — made clear that his confidence in Trump was unwavering.
“The Torah promises that Israel is the Jewish homeland, and will always be the Jewish homeland,” Klein said. “Unlike politicians, except President Trump, God keeps his promises.”
Attendees were enthusiastic about Trump’s presence. Some crowded toward the former president as a clutch of Secret Service officers held them back as Trump made his way to his seat.
Steve Merczynski, a Brooklyn resident who was wearing a hand-knit “MAGA” scarf made by a company he operates, pulled what he called a “Trump dollar” from his wallet. The fake bill showed Trump shaking DeSantis’ hand, with the caption “Make America Florida” — the implication being that a ticket shared by the two men would be Merczynski’s ideal in 2024.
Mercyzynski carried what he called a Trump dollar, which showed former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis embracing each other on the front of American currency. (Jacob Henry)
“I resent how they’re scapegoating him,” Steven Merczynski said about Republicans who are blaming Trump for the party’s poor showing last week. “As Jews we should know about scapegoating. To me Trump is the biggest scapegoat.”
Cindy Grosz, who hosts a conservative talk show called the Jewess Patriot from her home on Long Island, said she sees Donald Trump as “a friend or a husband.”
“Like a matchmaker looking to make a shidduch, you take the good with the bad,” she said. “If you weigh his policies versus the discussion, his policies made America great. And now we have to make America great again.”
Grosz, who ran unsuccessfully to become a Republican congressional candidate in 2020, said she wouldn’t count Trump out based on this week’s election results.
“They have called for his demise how many times and he has survived it,” she said. “I don’t think that whatever happened this week is his end either. And I look forward to hearing what he has to say Tuesday night.”
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Mistrial Declared in Case of Students Charged After Stanford Anti-Israel Protests
FILE PHOTO: A student attends an event at a protest encampment in support of Palestinians at Stanford University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Stanford, California U.S., April 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
A judge declared a mistrial on Friday in a case of five current and former Stanford University students related to the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests when demonstrators barricaded themselves inside the school president’s office.
Twelve protesters were initially charged last year with felony vandalism, according to prosecutors who said at least one suspect entered the building by breaking a window. Police arrested 13 people on June 5, 2024, in relation to the incident and the university said the building underwent “extensive” damage.
The case was tried in Santa Clara County Superior Court against five defendants charged with felony vandalism and felony conspiracy to trespass. The rest previously accepted plea deals or diversion programs.
The jury was deadlocked. It voted nine to three to convict on the felony charge of vandalism and eight to four to convict on the felony charge to trespass. Jurors failed to reach a verdict after deliberations.
The charges were among the most serious against participants in the 2024 pro-Palestinian protest movement on US colleges in which demonstrators demanded an end to Israel’s war in Gaza and Washington’s support for its ally along with a divestment of funds by their universities from companies supporting Israel.
Prosecutors in the case said the defendants engaged in unlawful property destruction.
“This case is about a group of people who destroyed someone else’s property and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. That is against the law,” Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement, adding he sought a new trial.
Anthony Brass, a lawyer for one of the protesters, told the New York Times his side was not defending lawlessness but “the concept of transparency and ethical investment.”
“This is a win for these young people of conscience and a win for free speech,” Brass said, adding “humanitarian activism has no place in a criminal courtroom.”
Protesters had renamed the building “Dr. Adnan’s Office” after Adnan Al-Bursh, a Palestinian doctor who died in an Israeli prison after months of detention.
Over 3,000 were arrested during the 2024 US pro-Palestinian protest movement, according to media tallies. Some students faced suspension, expulsion and degree revocation.
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Exclusive: FM Gideon Sa’ar to Represent Israel at 1st Board of Peace Meeting in Washington on Thursday
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar speaks next to High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas, and EU commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica as they hold a press conference on the day of an EU-Israel Association Council with European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
i24 News – Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will represent the country at the inaugural meeting of the Gaza Board of Peace in Washington on Thursday, i24NEWS learned on Saturday.
The arrangement was agreed upon following a request from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will not be able to attend.
Netanyahu pushed his Washington visit forward by a week, meeting with US President Donald Trump this week to discuss the Iran situation.
A U.N. Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the Board of Peace and countries working with it to establish an international stabilization force in Gaza and build on the ceasefire agreed in October under a Trump plan.
Under Trump’s Gaza plan, the board was meant to supervise Gaza’s temporary governance. Trump thereafter said the board, with him as chair, would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.
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Two Men Jailed in UK for Islamic State-Inspired Plot to Kill Hundreds of Jews
Weapons seized from the home of Walid Saadaoui, 38, who along with Amar Hussein, 52, has been found guilty at Preston Crown Court of plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired gun rampage against the Jewish community, in Britain, in this handout picture obtained by Reuters on December 23, 2025. They are due to be sentenced on Friday. Photo: Greater Manchester Police/Handout via REUTERS
Two men were jailed on Friday for plotting to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired attack on the Jewish community in England, a plan prosecutors said could have been deadlier than December’s mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were both convicted after a trial at Preston Crown Court, which began a week after an unrelated deadly attack on a synagogue in the city of Manchester, in northwest England.
Prosecutors said the pair were Islamist extremists who wanted to use automatic firearms to kill as many Jews as they could in an attack in Manchester.
They were found guilty little more than a week after a mass shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in which 15 people were killed.
Prosecutor Harpreet Sandhu said on Friday that, had Saadaoui and Hussein carried out their plan, it “could have been very much more serious” than the attacks in Australia and Manchester.
Judge Mark Wall sentenced Saadaoui to a minimum term of 37 years and Hussein to a minimum term of 26 years, saying: “You were very close to being ready to carry out this plan.”
Hussein refused to attend his sentencing, having refused to attend most of his trial, which Wall said reflected Hussein’s cowardice, describing him as “brave enough to plan to threaten an unarmed group with an AK-47 but not sufficiently courageous to face up to what he did.”
POTENTIALLY ONE OF DEADLIEST ATTACKS ON UK SOIL
Saadaoui had arranged for two assault rifles, an automatic pistol and almost 200 rounds of ammunition to be smuggled into Britain through the port of Dover when he was arrested in May 2024, Sandhu told jurors at the trial.
He added that Saadaoui planned to obtain two more rifles and another pistol, and to collect at least 900 rounds of ammunition.
“This would likely have been one of the deadliest terrorist attacks ever carried out on British soil,” Wall said.
Unbeknown to Saadaoui, however, a man known as “Farouk,” from whom he was trying to get the weapons, was an undercover operative who helped foil the plot.
Walid Saadaoui’s brother Bilel Saadaoui, 37, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism. He was sentenced to six years in jail.