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Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich to speak to US-based Israel Bonds group on his first US trip as minister
(JTA) — The U.S.-based Israel Bonds organization is set to host Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right Israeli government minister, at an upcoming conference.
The decision stands in contrast to hundreds of rabbis who have said they will not welcome Smotrich, the finance minister and leader of the far-right Religious Zionism Party, into their synagogues. They have encouraged other groups to follow suit.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency confirmed Wednesday that Smotrich, who has a history of bigoted statements, will be addressing the Washington, D.C. leadership meeting of the Development Corporation for Israel-State of Israel Bonds, which takes place from March 12-14. Smotrich was recently given authority over civilian life in Israel’s West Bank settlements. He has spent the past several days issuing conflicting statements about whether Huwara, a Palestinian village where settlers rioted and burned buildings following the murder of two Israelis, should be wiped out.
A source familiar with the gathering of Israel Bonds, which sells Israeli government bonds to investors abroad, confirmed Smotrich will be speaking. A spokeswoman for the group said it will not be commenting and that the leadership meeting will be closed to press. Israel Bonds CEO Dani Naveh, who is close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, did not return messages sent via email, text message and LinkedIn.
Israel Bonds does have an interest in the particulars of Smotrich’s job. It works closely with the Finance Ministry to determine where to invest in the country’s economy. It has not been shy in the past about featuring its collaboration with previous finance ministers.
The entry of Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party into the government has triggered a crisis for some American Jewish organizations, who oppose Smotrich’s views on Palestinians and minority groups in Israel. Smotrich supports annexing West Bank settlements to Israel and has called himself a “proud homophobe”.
On Wednesday, he said that the West Bank village of Hawara should be “wiped out” by the government, but later backtracked and wrote on social media that he meant Israel should be “acting in a targeted way against terrorists and supporters of terror.”
More than 330 rabbis have said they will not welcome Smotrich and others in his party into their congregations, and that they will lobby others in the community to boycott them. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations held its colloquy in Israel last month and did not host any sessions with ministers from the Religious Zionism Party, though it did invite them to a lunch for all members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. Israel Bonds is a member of the conference.
There have been reports that the Biden administration will also not entertain meetings with members of the Religious Zionism Party.
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The post Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich to speak to US-based Israel Bonds group on his first US trip as minister appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel’s Netanyahu Hopes to ‘Taper’ Israel Off US Military Aid in Next Decade
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published on Friday that he hopes to “taper off” Israeli dependence on US military aid in the next decade.
Netanyahu has said Israel should not be reliant on foreign military aid but has stopped short of declaring a firm timeline for when Israel would be fully independent from Washington.
“I want to taper off the military within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu told The Economist. Asked if that meant a tapering “down to zero,” he said: “Yes.”
Netanyahu said he told President Donald Trump during a recent visit that Israel “very deeply” appreciates “the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”
In December, Netanyahu said Israel would spend 350 billion shekels ($110 billion) on developing an independent arms industry to reduce dependency on other countries.
In 2016, the US and Israeli governments signed a memorandum of understanding for the 10 years through September 2028 that provides $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems.
Israeli defense exports rose 13 percent last year, with major contracts signed for Israeli defense technology including its advanced multi-layered aerial defense systems.
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Israel supporter and close ally of Trump, said on X that “we need not wait ten years” to begin scaling back military aid to Israel.
“The billions in taxpayer dollars that would be saved by expediting the termination of military aid to Israel will and should be plowed back into the US military,” Graham said. “I will be presenting a proposal to Israel and the Trump administration to dramatically expedite the timetable.”
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In Rare Messages from Iran, Protesters ask West for Help, Speak of ‘Very High’ Death Toll
Protests in Tehran. Photo: Iran Photo from social media used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law, via i24 News
i24 News – Speaking to Western media from beyond the nationwide internet blackout imposed by the Islamic regime, Iranian protesters said they needed support amid a brutal crackdown.
“We’re standing up for a revolution, but we need help. Snipers have been stationed behind the Tajrish Arg area [a neighborhood in Tehran],” said a protester in Tehran speaking to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity. He added that “We saw hundreds of bodies.”
Another activist in Tehran spoke of witnessing security forces firing live ammunition at protesters resulting in a “very high” number killed.
On Friday, TIME magazine cited a Tehran doctor speaking on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital recorded at least 217 killed protesters, “most by live ammunition.”
Speaking to Reuters on Saturday, Setare Ghorbani, a French-Iranian national living in the suburbs of Paris, said that she became ill from worry for her friends inside Iran. She read out one of her friends’ last messages before losing contact: “I saw two government agents and they grabbed people, they fought so much, and I don’t know if they died or not.”
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Report: US Increasingly Regards Iran Protests as Having Potential to Overthrow Regime
United States President Donald J Trump in White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Thursday, December 18, 2025. Photo: Aaron Schwartz via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – The assessment in Washington of the strength and scope of the Iran protests has shifted after Thursday’s turnout, with US officials now inclined to grant the possibility that this could be a game changer, Axios reported on Friday.
“The protests are serious, and we will continue to monitor them,” an unnamed senior US official was quoted as saying in the report.
Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after the Islamic regime blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as videos circulating on social media showed buildings ablaze in anti-government protests raging across the country.
US President Donald Trump warned the Ayatollahs of a strong response if security forces escalate violence against protesters.
“We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump told reporters when asked about the unrest in Iran.
The latest reported death toll is at 51 protesters, including nine children.