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Hecklers urge Israel’s president to pardon Netanyahu at American Zionist Movement conference in NYC
(JTA) — At the American Zionist Movement conference in New York City on Monday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog declined to respond to hecklers urging him to accept Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon.
The calls came after Herzog’s talk at the AZM Biennial National Assembly where he lamented growing antisemitism in the United States and condemned the city’s new Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who has faced criticism for his anti-Zionist advocacy.
When the audience was asked to direct questions at the Israeli leader, a delegate from the right-wing Zionist Organization of America rose and said, “Israel needs unity now, not vengeance. I’m calling on you to issue an immediate, unconditional pardon of Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
The audience erupted in shouting and several people called “shame” in Hebrew at the delegates, one of whom held a sign reading “Please, Pardon Natanyahu!”
“We made it very clear that we should focus on the challenges of the Zionist movement in America,” replied Herzog to the delegates, before moving onto the next question.
Netanyahu is currently facing three legal cases against him, including charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust. Last month, Netanyahu formally requested a pardon from Herzog, weeks after President Donald Trump made an identical request on his behalf.
The ruckus over Herzog’s remarks demonstrated the diverse array of Zionist groups gathered for the AZM conference, which was titled “Zionism: Many Visions, One Dream.” After Herzog’s talk, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of the Park Avenue Synagogue delivered a keynote address where he called for the Zionist movement to widen its tent even further and welcome voices that are critical of Israel.
Directly before Herzog took the stage, he was also delivered a letter calling for him to decline the pardon request. It was organized by the Israeli expat group UnXeptable, which grew out of protests held before the war in Gaza aimed at blocking Netanyahu’s attempts to limit the power of the country’s Supreme Court.
“Mr. President, a clear refusal now would be a brave and necessary act – in defense of Israel’s democracy, in honor of our Jewish moral tradition, and for the sake of all citizens of the State of Israel and the Jewish people who care so deeply about its future,” the letter read.
The letter was supported by 25 American and Israeli progressive Zionist groups, including J Street, New York Jewish Agenda and New Jewish Narrative.
Netanyahu’s trial, which was first initiated in 2020 and has since undergone starts and stops, has sowed similar divisions within Israeli society.
On Tuesday, a survey published by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 50% of Israelis do not think Herzog should grant Netanyahu a pardon, while 41% think he should. Support for the pardon was also split between Arab and Jewish Israelis, with 43% of Jewish Israelis supporting the pardon compared to 30% of Arab Israelis.
During his Q&A with Jewish author Abigail Pogrebin, Herzog also took aim at Mamdani, saying that he was “extremely disturbed” by the new mayor-elect.
“The fact is that in the city, which comprises the largest Jewish community outside the United States, you have a mayor-elect who shows utter contempt to the nation state of the Jewish people,” said Herzog, adding that Mamdani’s rhetoric “worries me a lot.” Mamdani has pledged to honor the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes were he to visit New York City.
Herzog also condemned Mamdani’s response to a protest last month targeting an Israeli immigration event at the Park East Synagogue. While Mamdani’s spokeswoman said the mayor-elect “discouraged the language” used at the protest, she added that “sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”
Addressing Mamdani’s response to the protest, Herzog said “this is utterly anti-constitutional because of the right to practice your religion.”
On Sunday night at Yeshiva University’s 101st Hanukkah Dinner, Herzog also issued a sharp condemnation of Mamdani’s response to the protest, saying that “recent developments in New York City have raised a red flag.”
“The incoming mayor’s response was to suggest that Jews who consider fulfilling the ultimate Zionist dream of making aliyah are violating international law and the sanctity of the synagogue. This rhetoric is outrageous,” continued Herzog.
At the AZM convention, when asked by Pogrebin what his response was to the 33% of Jewish New Yorkers who voted for Mamdani, Herzog replied that he was “not here to judge anybody.”
“I’m just looking at from a bird’s eye view, as a leader of the Jewish people, as somebody who really cares for all Jewry and for its well being, and the fact that every Jew should not be harassed anywhere, anywhere in the world because of his or her faith, and that’s all I’m talking about,” continued Herzog.
But when Pogrebin pushed further, asking Herzog about “young Jews who are feeling disquieted by the war,” the Israeli leader defended his country’s conduct in the two-year campaign to rout Hamas and return Israeli hostages.
“I’m not shying away from any criticism during the last few years. I’m confronting it, and I’m explaining it,” said Herzog. “We yearn and operate towards to be perfect, but sometimes you have to defend yourself, and we are defending ourselves according to the basic, most inherent rights of self defense by the international rules of international law.”
The post Hecklers urge Israel’s president to pardon Netanyahu at American Zionist Movement conference in NYC appeared first on The Forward.
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Mikveh unearthed beneath Western Wall plaza shows evidence of Temple’s destruction
Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,000‑year‑old Jewish ritual bath beneath the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem that bears ash and destruction debris from the Roman conquest of the city in 70 C.E., officials said.
The find, announced Monday by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, lies just west of where pilgrims once entered the Temple Mount, offering a rare physical link to everyday life in late Second Temple Jerusalem.
The mikveh, hewn into the bedrock, measures approximately 10 feet long; 4 feet, 5 inches wide; and 6 feet, 1 inch high, with four steps leading into the bath. It was found sealed beneath a destruction layer dated to the year 70 C.E., filled with ash, pottery shards and stone vessels.
“Jerusalem should be remembered as a Temple city,” Ari Levy, the excavation director for the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in the announcement. “As such, many aspects of daily life were adapted to this reality, and this is reflected especially in the meticulous observance of the laws of ritual impurity and purity by the city’s residents and leaders.” Levy noted that stone vessels, which do not contract ritual impurity under Jewish law, were common in the area.
Heritage Minister Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu said the discovery “strengthens our understanding of how deeply intertwined religious life and daily life were in Jerusalem during the Temple period” and underlined the importance of continuing archaeological research in the city.
Mordechai (Suli) Eliav, director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, described the mikveh and its contents as a vivid historical testament: “The exposure of a Second Temple period ritual bath beneath the Western Wall Plaza, with ashes from the destruction at its base, testifies like a thousand witnesses to the ability of the people of Israel to move from impurity to purity, from destruction to renewal.”
Researchers say the mikveh likely served both local residents and the many pilgrims who visited the Temple in the years leading up to the Roman siege.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Mikveh unearthed beneath Western Wall plaza shows evidence of Temple’s destruction appeared first on The Forward.
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Greece, Israel, Cyprus to Step Up Joint Exercises in Eastern Mediterranean
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center), Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides (left), and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis hold a joint press conference after a trilateral meeting at the Citadel of David Hotel in Jerusalem, Dec. 22, 2025. Photo: ABIR SULTAN/Pool via REUTERS
Greece, Israel, and Cyprus will step up joint air and naval exercises in the eastern Mediterranean in 2026, deepening their defense cooperation, Greek military officials and a senior source said on Monday.
The three eastern Mediterranean nations have drawn closer over the past decade through joint military drills, defense procurement, and energy cooperation, developments closely watched by regional rival Turkey.
Greece’s armed forces general staff (GEETHA) said senior military officials from the three countries signed a joint action plan for defense cooperation last week in Cyprus. It gave no further details.
The deal follows a meeting in Jerusalem between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at which they signed a deal to strengthen maritime security cooperation and advance energy interconnection projects.
A senior Greek official familiar with the matter said the military deal would encompass joint naval and air exercises and the transfer of know-how from Israel to Greece and Cyprus to address both “asymmetrical” and “symmetrical” threats.
“Greece and Israel will intensify joint exercises after the ceasefire in Gaza, with Cyprus participating,” the official said, adding that Greece plans to join Israel’s Noble Dina naval exercise in the coming months in the eastern Mediterranean.
There was no immediate comment from the Cypriot government, but a key opposition party, the Communist AKEL, expressed misgivings. “Mr. Christodoulides proceeds to deepen military-political cooperation with Israel without considering the risks and consequences of this choice,” it said in a statement.
Greece and Cyprus have already purchased missile systems from Israel worth billions of euros. Athens is also in talks to buy from Israel medium- and long-range anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missile systems for a planned multi-layer air and drone defense system known as the “Achilles Shield,” estimated to cost about 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion).
This month, the Greek parliament approved the purchase of 36 PULS rocket artillery systems from Israel to bolster defenses along Greece’s northeastern border with Turkey and on Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.
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Sydney to Project Menorah on Harbour Bridge During New Year’s Eve Celebration in Tribute to Bondi Beach Attack
A woman keeps a candle next to flowers laid as a tribute at Bondi Beach to honor the victims of a mass shooting that targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Sunday, in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Flavio Brancaleone
The city of Sydney, Australia, changed plans on Monday for its New Year’s Eve celebration to include a projection of a menorah on Harbour Bridge in honor of the 15 victims of the Bondi Beach terror attack during Hanukkah, following pressure by Jewish-Australian cultural figures.
Sydney Mayor Clover Moore announced last week initial plans to have the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons illuminated in white with an image of a dove with the word “peace” shortly before 9 pm on New Year’s Eve this Wednesday. The bridge would then, according to the plans, be illuminated again at 11 pm “in a warm light,” and a moment of silence would be held on the ground and during the New Year’s Eve broadcast on the network ABC. Crowds were invited to switch on their phone lights in a show of solidarity with the Jewish community.
The gesture was meant to “show the Jewish community that we stand with them, and that we reject violence, fear and antisemitism,” said Moore. “These moments will provide an opportunity for people to show respect, to reflect on the atrocity, and to say we will not let this hateful act of terror divide us.”
However, plans were changed to include a projection of a menorah on the bridge after more than 30 Jewish-Australian cultural figures published an open letter on Monday that urged Moore to project a more “Jewish-specific symbol” to commemorate the victims of the Bondi Beach mass shooting on Dec. 14, the first night of Hanukkah. They asked “that the particularism of the victims be acknowledged rather than erased,” according to ABC, which obtained a copy of the open letter.
“We believe this dignity would be afforded to the victims of any other terrorist attack that targeted a specific community. Only when we clearly name the problem of anti-Jewish hatred in Australia can we hope to overcome it,” the letter stated in part. “The selection of this word [peace], coupled with the dove, without any specific reference to the targeting of the Jewish community, prolongs our erasure and obfuscates the problem of domestic antisemitism. We acknowledge the City of Sydney’s plan as a gesture of remembrance, and agree with the need for such a gesture; however, we consider the imagery and word chosen to be insufficient as they do not acknowledge the Jewish particularity of the Bondi massacre.”
Signatories of the open letter included Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks, ARIA award winner Deborah Conway, Archibald Prize winner Yvette Coppersmith, and members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The group members also claimed their warnings about antisemitism had been overlooked by “generic calls for peace” during the last two years.
After publication of the open letter, Moore said the Harbour Bridge will project a menorah at 11 pm on New Year’s Eve, ABC reported. The co-creator of the open letter, producer and director Danny Ben-Moshe, applauded the move in a Facebook post on Monday.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge will also light up in blue at 10 pm on New Year’s Eve in recognition of the event’s official charity partner Beyond Blue, which provides free mental health support.
“This New Year’s Eve offers a chance for people to pause, acknowledge the pain, remember those affected, and extend care and support to one another and especially the Jewish community,” said Beyond Blue CEO Georgie Harman in a released statement. “When something like this happens, it doesn’t just impact the people who were there — it ripples through families, communities, and across the country, and it’s normal to feel unsettled or distressed. Staying connected is an important step towards healing after a traumatic event and social support is one of the most meaningful things we can offer and receive right now. You don’t need to go through anything alone and it’s never too early to reach out to us if you’re struggling.”
At midnight on New Year’s Eve, there will be 12-minute fireworks show in Sydney including from six city rooftops, Sydney Harbour Bridge, and Sydney Opera House.