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Israeli democracy is ‘robust,’ former PM Naftali Bennett assures New Yorkers
(New York Jewish Week) — Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told an audience here that reports of the deaths of Israeli democracy are exaggerated, and urged American Jews to make their concerns known to the new far-right government rather than walk away.
“There are a lot of foolish words flying out in the air,” Bennett said last night in remarks at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan, referring to various proposals among newly installed Israeli cabinet members. “There’s a core of responsibility that will fend off the most radical of the suggestions, but to be fair, I don’t know.”
Speaking onstage with Eric Goldstein, CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, Bennett appeared to be referring to two critics of LGBT rights in Israel, Bezalel Smotrich and Noam Party leader Avi Maoz, when he said, “No one’s going to touch the LGBT community in Israel. No one’s going to mess around with it. Israel is robust.”
Bennett, who served as prime minister from 2021 to 2022 in the rotation government that preceded Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power in December, spoke at the Reform synagogue at a particularly tense time in Diaspora-Israel relations. Leaders of groups representing American Judaism’s largely liberal community have expressed deep concerns over proposals by Netanyahu’s new coalition partners to greatly expand Jewish settlement in the West Bank, curb minority rights and strengthen Orthodox control in matters of Jewish religious status.
Two weeks ago, Goldstein wrote a statement saying that he is “alarmed” by recent reforms, introduced by Israel’s newly installed justice minister, that would allow Israel’s parliament to override decisions by the Supreme Court and further politicize the selection of its justices. He implored Netanyahu to reject the overhaul.
On this too, Bennett sought to be reassuring. He criticized a Supreme Court that he said had “gradually usurped authority that it didn’t have,” but said that it needed only a “small little nudge” to address those concerns. “I smell a compromise coming,” he said.
“I recommend you enter a dialogue with the government” in Israel, he urged the audience. “Speak up and talk with the government. Israelis sometimes think the world revolves around Israel and don’t always see the broader view of Jews around the world and the world itself. I think sharing with the Israeli leadership, what’s going on and what it means and what the implications are, is meaningful. There are ministers who have never been abroad, so you are what you are experience.”
Bennett, who stepped away from politics last year ahead of the November election, also spoke at length about his efforts to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the first months of Russia’s unprovoked war on its neighbor. Bennett asserted that in meetings with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president said he would no longer demand regime change and demilitarization in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Vlodomyr Zelensky told him Ukraine would “no longer want to join NATO, which was the very reason for the war.” Bennett suggested the negotiations fell apart because of Ukrainian objections. “I want to be cautious here,” he said. “The message [from Zelensky] was ‘we don’t want to run yet to ceasefire for various reasons…. Putin was an aggressor and he needs to pay the price.’”
Despite Bennett’s reassurances that Israel’s democracy remains robust, many audience members remained wary about the new government.
“I’m concerned about what I’m seeing in Israel,” said Asaf Jacobi, 39, who earned his law degree in Israel and served in its military. “They’re trying to unstabilize the checks and balances in Israel to the extreme. [Netanyahu] is clearly putting his interests over the country, and you can see people in the streets are really not happy with what’s happening. It’s too religious and too extreme.”
Debra Delorenzo, who has lived in the Upper East Side her whole life, said Bennett “did a wonderful job. He’s a good speaker and engages the audience.” And yet, she said, “I wanted him to address certain things and he skirted around it. I wanted him to talk about the occupation. I wanted him to talk about [Netanyahu] who I can’t stand. Israel is a democracy, but it’s losing it’s panache about it. It’s become more of an occupier. I love Israel, and I”m Jewish, but there are things going on there that [Bennett] didn’t address.”
One elderly woman, who declined to give her name, welcomed the political changes in Israel.
“We love the government,” she said. “And we think that the change in the judicial system should have occurred long ago.”
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UAE Leaves OPEC in Blow to Global Oil Producers’ Group
Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz, Musandam, Oman, April 22, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday said it was quitting OPEC, dealing a blow to the oil producers’ group as an unprecedented energy crisis caused by the Iran war exposes discord among Gulf nations.
The exit of the UAE – one of the group’s biggest producers – weakens OPEC’s control over global oil supplies and widens a rift between the UAE and its neighbor Saudi Arabia, effectively the leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
It could also free the UAE to increase output once exports via the Gulf resume as it would no longer be governed by OPEC quotas.
In his first public comments since the announcement, UAE Energy Minister Suhail Mohamed al-Mazrouei told Reuters in a telephone interview that the decision was taken after examining the country’s energy strategies.
He said the UAE had not discussed the issue with any other country.
“This is a policy decision, it has been done after a careful look at current and future policies related to level of production,” Mazrouei said.
UAE WILL LEAVE ON MAY 1
He also said the world would demand more energy, implying the UAE would be positioned to meet that need.
Oil prices on international markets trimmed gains on Tuesday following the UAE‘s announcement it would on May 1 leave OPEC and OPEC+, which brings together OPEC and allied producers.
Mazrouei said he did not expect much immediate market impact from the news because of constraints in the Strait of Hormuz.
OPEC Gulf producers have been struggling to ship exports through the Strait, a chokepoint between Iran and Oman through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas normally passes, because of Iranian threats and attacks against vessels.
As Gulf supplies have become stuck, the International Energy Agency said OPEC+’s share of global oil output fell to 44% in March from about 48% in February. It is likely to fall further in April as production shut-ins become more pronounced – and then further in May as the fourth biggest producer leaves the group.
A WIN FOR US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP?
The UAE‘s exit represents a win for US President Donald Trump, who in a 2018 address to the UN General Assembly accused the organization of “ripping off the rest of the world” by inflating oil prices.
Trump has also linked US military support for the Gulf with oil prices, saying that while the US defends OPEC members, they “exploit this by imposing high oil prices.”
Analysts said it was also positive for consumers and the broader economy.
“This opens the door for the UAE to gain global market share when the geopolitical situation normalizes,” said Monica Malik, chief economist at ADCB.
Jorge Leon, analyst at Rystad, noted the UAE‘s significance as one of the few members of OPEC, apart from Saudi Arabia, with spare production capacity that allows it to add extra oil to the market.
“Outside the group, the UAE would have both the incentive and the ability to increase production, raising broader questions about the sustainability of Saudi Arabia’s role as the market’s central stabilizer,” he said.
WIDENING RIFT BETWEEN UAE AND SAUDI ARABIA
Once firm allies, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh have developed a simmering rivalry, clashing on issues from oil policy and regional geopolitics to the race for foreign talent and capital.
The UAE is a regional business and financial hub and one of Washington’s most important allies. It has pursued an assertive foreign policy and carved its own sphere of influence across the Middle East and Africa.
Especially after coming under attack during the Iran war, the UAE has strengthened its relationships with the United States and Israel, with which it opened ties in the 2020 Abraham Accords. It views the relationship with Israel as a lever for regional influence and a unique channel to Washington.
Some Gulf leaders, meanwhile, met in person on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, a summit that a Gulf official said aimed to craft a response to the thousands of Iranian missile and drone strikes their nations have faced since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February.
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University of California Regent ‘Disgusted’ by UCLA Student Government for Condemning Israeli Hostage Event
Former hostage Omer Shem Tov speaks, as people celebrate at the “Hostages square,” after US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas agreed on the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 9, 2025. Photo: Shir Torem via Reuters Connect
A member of the University of California system’s governing body has lambasted the Los Angeles campus’ student government for writing an open letter which condemned a university-sponsored event headlined by an Israeli who survived being kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas in the aftermath of the Palestinian terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
Jay Sures, who sites on UC’s Board of Regents, on Friday sent a searing letter to UCLA’s Undergraduate Student Association, saying he was “disgusted and appalled” by their condemnation of the April 14 event and refusal to consider different opinions.
“Talk about a missed opportunity. Rather than hearing the perspective of a 23-year-old peer abducted by terrorists at a music festival … those of you who voted for the letter of condemnation chose not to listen at all,” Sures wrote. “You claim you want balance in programming and more than a ‘single narrative’ from speakers at UCLA. Balance, by definition, inherently involves equal consideration of more than one point of view. By condemning this speaker’s public appearance on our campus, your words and actions make clear you have no interest in balance at all.”
He added, “That is the biggest double standard of all.”
UCLA’s undergraduate student government issued its missive after learning that Omer Shem Tov would be speaking on campus as a guest of the campus’ Hillel International chapter.
Shem Tov, who was a college student at the time of his abduction, endured 505 days as a prisoner of Hamas and was one of 168 people who survived captivity throughout the duration of the war in Gaza. He has been speaking across the US about his experience, and his scheduled talk at UCLA stood to be routine until the student government resolved to argue that his being on campus would threaten Muslim students.
“While we affirm the humanity of people impacted by violence, we reject the selective platforming of narratives that obscure the broader reality of ongoing state violence,” said the letter, which also included false accusations of a genocide of Palestinians. “Institutional sponsorship of this event reflects a troubling disregard for Palestinian life and contribute to a campus climate in which Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students are further marginalized, silenced, and harmed.”
It continued, “Universities must not be complicit in the production or amplification of one-sided narratives that erase systems of oppression and occupation. USAC has and continues to stand in unwavering solidarity with Palestinian students and all those impacted by state violence and displacement.”
Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists kidnapped 251 hostages during their Oct. 7 onslaught, which included systematic sexual violence against Israeli civilians and the murder of 1,200 people — the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
Sures was not the only member of the University of California community who spoke out against UCLA’s student government,
“Members of the UCLA student government have once again shown they are anti-dialogue, anti-learning, anti-truth, anti-student, and anti-Jewish and antisemitic in condemning our beautiful event last week with Omer Shem Tov,” Hillel at UCLA told the Daily Bruin in a statement.
Meanwhile a Jewish member of the student government who helped organize the event with Shem Tov alleged that the body intentionally elected to vote to release the letter on a day she could not be present.
In another stinging rebuke, UCLA issued its own statement praising the event, which went on as planned, for promoting a “message … of resilience and respect for human rights and dignity.”
UCLA has taken efforts to combat campus antisemitism and anti-Zionist extremism, but it stands against the current of an overwhelmingly anti-Zionist student body and faculty.
In February 2025, some 50 members of the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, joined by Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine, amassed on the property of Sures’s private home and threatened that he must “divest now or pay.” As part of the demonstration, the students imprinted their hands, which had been submerged in red paint to symbolize the spilling of blood, all over Sures’s garage door and cordoned the area with caution tape.
That same month, a Jewish faculty group at the university issued an open letter calling attention to a slew of indignities to which they have been subjected since the Oct. 7 attack. It enumerated a litany of falsehoods spread about Jews by a task force created to study anti-Arab bigotry on the campus — including that Jewish faculty have conspired to undermine academic freedom with “coordinated repression,” promoted the interests of conservative groups, and harmed minority students by opposing “racial justice.”
Several months later, the university announced a grand initiative to fight antisemitism head on, calling the current moment an “inflection point.”
Said UCLA chancellir Dr. Julio Frenk, “Building on past efforts and lessons, we must now push ourselves to extinguish antisemitism, completely and definitively. The principles on which UCLA was founded — and which we continue to advance — point us toward a clear course of action: We must persevere in our fight to end hate, however it manifests itself.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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King Charles Promotes US-UK Unity in Speech to Congress Amid Iran Tensions
Britain’s King Charles addresses a joint meeting of Congress, next to US Vice President JD Vance and US House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, April 28, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Kylie Cooper/Pool
Britain’s King Charles told the US Congress on Tuesday that despite an age of uncertainty and conflict in Europe and the Middle East, the UK and the US will always be staunch allies united in defending democracy, at a time of deep divisions between the two long-time allies over the war with Iran.
“Whatever our differences, whatever disagreements we may have, we stand united in our commitment to uphold democracy, to protect all our people from harm, and to salute the courage of those who daily risk their lives in the service of our countries,” Charles told US lawmakers during a rare speech to a joint meeting of the US Senate and US House of Representatives, and after a prolonged standing ovation at his entrance with Queen Camilla.
Charles’ address came on the second day of a four-day state visit to the US during a tense time in relations between the two countries, after US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for what Trump says is his lack of help in prosecuting the Iran war.
“I come here today with the highest respect for the United States Congress – this citadel of democracy created to represent the voice of all American people to advance sacred rights and freedoms,” Charles said.
Trump has said Starmer, who has won some plaudits at home for not joining the Iran offensive, was no Winston Churchill, while he belittled a later offer of military assistance to defend allies in the region.
Before his speech Charles met with top Republican and Democratic lawmakers after a morning visit to the White House with Camilla that included a closed-door meeting between the king and Trump. The events are part of a visit to the US designed to underscore ties forged between Britain and its former colony over the 250 years since American independence.
The king was only the second British sovereign to address the US Congress. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, spoke to both houses in 1991.
TRUMP UNDERSCORES FRIENDSHIP
Earlier, during a ceremonial outdoor reception at the White House, Trump stressed the friendship that has evolved between Britons and Americans since their days as adversaries during the War of Independence and the “wounds of war” it caused.
“The soldiers who once called each other Redcoats and Yankees became the Tommies and the GIs who together saved the free world as brothers in arms and brothers in eternity,” the president said in a reference to World War II as hundreds of guests gathered on the South Lawn with the Washington Monument in the distance.
After escorting the king and queen to their limousine for departure from the White House, Trump told reporters, “It was a really good meeting. He’s a fantastic person. They’re incredible people and it’s a real honor.”
Addresses to joint meetings of Congress are generally reserved for the closest US allies or major world figures. The last was by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in July 2024.
As tensions between the two countries have grown over the US-Israeli offensive against Iran, an internal Pentagon email suggested Washington could review its support for Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands.
The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Christian Turner, had said that the only “special relationship” the US has is with “probably Israel” and that he disliked the phrase because it is “quite nostalgic” and it has a “lot of baggage about it.”
Asked about the report, a foreign office spokesperson said Turner was making “private, informal comments” to a group of teenage British students who visited the US in early February. “They are certainly not any reflection of the UK government’s position,” the spokesperson said.
TRUMP CRITICAL OF ALLIES
Trump’s administration has repeatedly criticized many of the US-led military alliance’s other members for not offering more assistance to US operations against Iran and pressed European countries into sharing more of the financial burden for supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
While written on the advice of the British government, much of the language and tone in the speech came from Charles himself, a Buckingham Palace source said.
Charles’ visit comes after a gunman tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday that was attended by Trump, his wife, and much of his cabinet. They were rushed to safety by law enforcement.
Asked earlier at the White House how she was doing following the incident, Melania Trump replied: “Very well, thank you.”
Tuesday night’s state dinner will be the first at the White House since Trump had the East Wing torn down to make way for his planned ballroom. The East Wing for decades has been the official entrance for guests arriving for state dinners and other functions, and with the area now a construction zone, they will have to take a different route into the building.
Charles presented Trump with a framed facsimile of the 1879 design plans for the president’s Resolute Desk, the originals of which are in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.
The Resolute Desk, located in the Oval Office, was created from the timbers of the British exploration ship HMS Resolute and presented to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria.
Trump gave the king a facsimile of a 1785 letter by John Adams, describing his reception by King George III as the first US ambassador to Britain at St. James’s Palace and their mutual pledges of friendship following American independence.