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Israeli cabinet ministers cancel meetings with US Jewish organizations in the wake of protests
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Two Israeli ministers who have built relationships with Jewish leaders in the Diaspora canceled meetings at the last minute with American Jewish organizations in the face of protests.
One of the ministers, however, was still confronted by a demonstration, and one protestor was thrown to the ground by security guards.
Amichai Chikli, the minister of Diaspora affairs, canceled a meeting that was to have taken place Thursday with the Washington, D.C., area’s Jewish Community Relations Council and Jewish federation. Nir Barkat, the economy minister and former Jerusalem mayor and tech entrepreneur, canceled an event at a Boston-area synagogue scheduled for the same day.
The cancellations come after a week during which protests, often led by Israeli expatriates, have repeatedly disrupted the activities of Israeli officials visiting the United States for a pro-Israel parade in New York City last Sunday. The protests aim to support mass Israeli street demonstrations against the right-wing government’s effort to significantly weaken the judiciary.
In Boston, protesters confronted Barkat in his hotel, and a video posted to social media showed a protester rush past security toward Barkat, whose guards threw him to the ground. The protester was hospitalized and questioned by police. Barkat addressed the incident on Twitter by writing, “A political murder is only a matter of time in the state of Israel.”
“Thanks to the protest, there are those who have allowed the blood of elected officials to flow,” he wrote. “We’re on a slippery and dangerous slope. I am grateful to the guards of the personal security detail who rebuffed the attacker and prevented injury to me. Violence is the crumbling of the foundations of democracy.”
Barkat’s event was to have taken place at Temple Beth Elohim, a Reform synagogue in Wellesley, a suburb of Boston. The city’s Israeli consulate had rented the space for the speech weeks in advance, according to Haaretz, and when the congregation’s rabbi heard of the event, he said he planned to join in protests.
“It is very unusual that we find protesters outside our Temple building, even though a robust debate is consistent with Israel’s vibrant democracy and our Jewish tradition,” said Rabbi Joel Sisenwine, according to Haaretz. “I truly believe that the current judicial reform proposal, as currently stated, is a threat to Israel’s democracy.”
The Israeli embassy in Washington said Chikli canceled his appearance on Thursday because of a scheduling conflict. Federation and JCRC officials seemed surprised by the cancelation, saying it came at the last minute, and an Israeli-led protest movement, called UnXeptable, claimed credit for the cancellation.
Protests have dogged the itineraries of several Israelis in the U.S. over the past week. In recent days, a government minister canceled a speech in Los Angeles, and Israeli officials in New York were jeered both within and outside events, at Sunday’s parade and on the streets. Barkat was interrupted by protesters on Monday at a conference hosted by the Jerusalem Post, and Chikli was heckled at the parade, where he appeared to mock protesters.
A number of American Jews, among them organizations and individuals that historically have refrained from criticizing Israel, have spoken out against the judicial reforms and in some cases have joined protests in Israel and in the United States. They see the courts as a bulwark protecting vulnerable populations, including women, LGBTQ people, Arabs and non-Orthodox Jews.
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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.