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Jewish federations come out against Netanyahu’s judicial reform in rare critique of internal Israeli politics
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In a rare comment on internal Israeli politics, the umbrella organization for local Jewish federations is urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to drop one element of his government’s controversial plan for judicial reform.
On Tuesday, the Jewish Federations of North America sent an open letter to Netanyahu and Yair Lapid, leader of the parliamentary opposition, opposing a proposed change that would allow a bare majority of Israeli lawmakers to override Supreme Court rulings. Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has 120 seats, and one piece of the plan would allow 61 members to negate court decisions that strike down laws. Lapid opposes the plan.
It is the first statement by a large American Jewish umbrella group opposing the court reform. The proposed changes have sparked mass protests across Israel and warnings from a chorus of public figures that they will damage Israel’s democratic character.
Some elements of the proposal, though not the override clause, just passed a major legislative milestone in the Knesset. A bill approved in an initial vote on Tuesday would hand the Israeli government full control over judicial appointments and bar the Supreme Court from ruling on Israeli Basic Laws, the country’s closest parallel to a constitution. Following the vote, the value of the Israeli shekel plunged.
The group’s letter also encourages the parliamentary coalition and opposition to enter into negotiations over the content of the reform, as proposed by Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
“We urge you to make clear that a majority of just sixty one votes of the Knesset is not sufficient to override a decision of the Supreme Court,” the letter said. “The essence of democracy is both majority rule and protection of minority rights. We recognize that any system of checks and balances will be different than those in our own countries, but such a dramatic change to the Israeli system of governance will have far-reaching consequences in North America, both within the Jewish community and in the broader society.”
In the past, the Jewish federations system and other American Jewish groups have taken action to oppose Israeli policies or proposals that could harm religious freedom or Jewish pluralism in Israel. The vast majority of North American Jews are not Orthodox, and federation leadership has worked in the past to counter measures that, in their view, could impinge on the recognition or rights of non-Orthodox Jews in the Jewish state.
Past actions on that front include convening nonprofits that work on religious freedom, lobbying the prime minister directly and — in the case of one federation leader — telling Israeli lawmakers who supported a bill to stay away from his city.
The federations’ letter does not include promises or threats of further action. But a separate statement by the Jewish federations’ CEO Eric Fingerhut and chairwoman Julie Platt suggested that they feared the court reform could hurt Israeli religious pluralism activists.
Passing the override clause would mean “complete power would be in the hands of each temporary majority created after each election,” said Fingerhut and Platt’s memo. “This concentration of power is a cause of great concern on many issues that North American Jews and our allies across the broader society have always cared about.”
The memo and the letter did not say which particular issues of concern would be affected by the change, but the court has been instrumental in protecting the rights of minorities, including non-Orthodox religious streams and the LGBTQ community.
The letter joins a growing list of public exhortations against the legislation from a wide array of groups and people. This weekend, new letters were distributed by the Conservative/Masorti movement of Judaism, 200 U.S. Jewish scientists and Arab Israeli leaders. Some of those opposing the court reform are staunch defenders of Israel in other circumstances, including Bret Stephens, the conservative New York Times columnist; Alan Dershowitz, the celebrity lawyer; and Abe Foxman, the emeritus CEO of the Anti-Defamation League.
Last month the head of the largest federation, UJA-Federation of New York, also expressed his alarm over the proposed reforms.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu again rejected a call to freeze the legislative process, a measure Herzog recommended, saying he would speak with the opposition but without “preconditions.”
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German Auction House Cancels Sale of Holocaust Artifacts Following Outrage
People with Israeli flags attend the International March of the Living at the former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
An auction house in Germany canceled a sale of hundreds of Holocaust artifacts – including letters written by German concentration camp prisoners to their loved ones — that was scheduled to take place on Monday following intense backlash from an association of Holocaust survivors and government officials in Poland and Germany.
Radoslaw Sikorski, the deputy prime minister of Poland, announced on Sunday that the “offensive” auction was canceled after he and German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul “agreed that such a scandal must be prevented.” Sikorski called for the Holocaust artifacts to be instead given to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.
“The memory of Holocaust victims is not a commodity and cannot be the subject of commercial trade,” he said in a post on X. “Respect for victims requires the dignity of silence, not the din of commerce.”
The Auktionhaus Felzmann auction house in the city of Neuss planned to sell on Monday a lot titled “The System of Terror Vol II 1933-1945.” It included more than 600 items such as Gestapo index cards and other documents that belonged to perpetrators of the genocide against European Jewry. Also up for sale were personal documents “relating to the persecution and humiliation of individuals” that contained the real names of Holocaust victims, according to the International Auschwitz Committee, which unites organizations, foundations, and Holocaust survivors from 19 countries. The items have since been removed from the Auktionhaus Felzmann website.
Over the weekend, Christoph Heubner, executive vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee, called on the auction house to “show some human decency” and cancel the auction.
“For victims of Nazi persecution and survivors of the Holocaust, this auction is a cynical and shameless piece of marketing,” said Heubner. “It leaves them outraged and stunned. Their history and the suffering of all those who were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis are being abused and exploited for commercial gain.”
Heubner added that personal documents relating to the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews belong to the families of victims. Those items “should be displayed in museums or in exhibitions at memorial sites and not be reduced to profit-making articles in a commercial context,” he noted.
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Trump Hosts Saudi Crown Prince for Pomp-Filled, Deal-Making Visit
US President Donald Trump stands next to Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman during an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US, Nov. 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
President Donald Trump hosted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on Tuesday, with the Saudi de facto ruler seeking to further rehabilitate his global image after the 2018 killing of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi and deepen ties with Washington.
Making his first White House visit in more than seven years, the crown prince was greeted with a lavish display of pomp and ceremony presided over by Trump on the South Lawn, complete with a military honor guard, a cannon salute, and a flyover by US warplanes.
Talks between the two leaders are expected to advance security ties, civil nuclear cooperation, and multibillion-dollar business deals with the kingdom. But there will likely be no major breakthrough on Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel, despite pressure from Trump for such a landmark move.
The meeting underscores a key relationship — between the world’s biggest economy and the top oil exporter — that Trump has made a high priority in his second term as the international uproar around the killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi insider-turned-critic, has gradually faded.
US intelligence concluded that bin Salman approved the capture or killing of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The crown prince denied ordering the operation but acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.
The warm welcome for bin Salman in Washington is the latest sign that relations have recovered from the deep strain caused by Khashoggi’s murder.
Trump greeted bin Salman with a smile and a handshake on the red carpet, while dozens of military personnel lined the perimeter. The limousine was escorted up the South Drive by a US Army mounted honor guard. The two leaders then looked skyward as fighter jets roared overhead, before Trump led his guest inside.
Before sitting down for talks, the two leaders chatted amiably as Trump gave bin Salman a tour of presidential portraits lining the wall outside the Oval Office.
During a day of White House diplomacy, bin Salman will hold talks with Trump in the Oval Office, have lunch in the Cabinet Room, and attend a formal black-tie dinner in the evening, giving it many of the trappings of a state visit. US and Saudi flags festooned lamp posts in front of the White House.
Trump expects to build on a $600 billion Saudi investment pledge made during his visit to the kingdom in May, which will include the announcement of dozens of targeted projects, a senior US administration official said.
The US and Saudi Arabia were ready to strike deals on Tuesday for defense sales, enhanced cooperation on civil nuclear energy, and a multibillion-dollar investment in US artificial intelligence infrastructure, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Trump told reporters on Monday, “We’ll be selling” F-35s to Saudi, which has requested to buy 48 of the advanced aircraft.
This would be the first US sale of the fighter jets to Saudi Arabia and mark a significant policy shift. The deal could alter the military balance in the Middle East and test Washington’s definition of maintaining what the US has termed Israel’s “qualitative military edge.” Until now, Israel has been the only country in the Middle East to have the F-35.
Beyond military equipment, the Saudi leader is seeking new security guarantees. Most experts expect Trump to issue an executive order creating the kind of defense pact he recently gave to Qatar but still short of the congressionally ratified NATO-style treaty the Saudis initially sought.
EYE ON CHINA
Former US negotiator in the Middle East Dennis Ross, who is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, said Trump wants to develop a multifaceted relationship that keeps Saudi Arabia out of China’s sphere.
“President Trump believes all these steps bind the Saudis increasingly to us on a range of issues, ranging from security to the finance-AI-energy nexus. He wants them bound to us on these issues and not China,” Ross said.
Trump is expected to keep up pressure on bin Salman for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel.
The Saudis have been reluctant to take such a major step without a clear path to Palestinian statehood, a goal that has been forced to the backburner as the region grapples with the Gaza war.
Trump reached Abraham Accords agreements between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Sudan during his first term in 2020. In recent weeks, Kazakhstan agreed to join.
But Trump has always seen Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords as the linchpin to achieving a wider Middle East peace.
“It’s very important to him that they join the Abraham Accords during his term and so he has been hyping up the pressure on that,” the senior White House official said.
Jonathan Panikoff, former deputy national intelligence officer on the Middle East, said that while Trump will urge bin Salman to move toward normalizing ties with Israel, any lack of progress there is unlikely to hinder reaching a new US-Saudi security pact.
“President Trump’s desire for investment into the US, which the crown prince previously promised, could help soften the ground for expanding defense ties even as the president is determined to advance Israeli-Saudi normalization,” said Panikoff, now at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.
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After UN Vote, Netanyahu Calls for Hamas’s Expulsion From the Region
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the plenum of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, Nov. 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called for Hamas to be expelled from the region, a day after the UN Security Council endorsed President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war that offers the Palestinian terrorist group amnesty.
Netanyahu publicly endorsed the plan during a White House visit in late September. However, his latest remarks appear to show that there are differences with the United States on the path forward. Hamas has also objected to parts of the plan.
Diplomats say privately that entrenched positions on both the Israeli and Hamas sides have made it difficult to advance the plan, which lacks specific timelines or enforcement mechanisms. Still, it has received strong international backing.
Netanyahu on Tuesday published a series of posts on X in response to the UN vote. In one post, he applauded Trump and in another wrote the Israeli government believes the plan would lead to peace and prosperity because it calls for the “full demilitarization, disarmament, and deradicalization of Gaza.”
“Israel extends its hand in peace and prosperity to all of our neighbors” and calls on neighboring countries to “join us in expelling Hamas and its supporters from the region,” he said.
Asked what the prime minister had meant by expelling Hamas, a spokesperson said that it would mean “ensuring there is no Hamas in Gaza as outlined in the 20-point plan, and Hamas has no ability to govern the Palestinian people inside the Gaza Strip.”
PLAN DOES NOT CALL FOR HAMAS’s EXPULSION
Trump’s 20-point plan includes a clause saying that Hamas members “who commit to peaceful coexistence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty” and members who wish to leave will be given safe passage to third countries.
Another clause says Hamas will agree to not having any role in Gaza’s governance. There is no clause that explicitly calls for the Islamist militant group to disband or to leave Gaza.
The plan says reforms to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority may ultimately allow conditions “for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”
Ahead of the UN vote, Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel remained opposed to Palestinian statehood after protests by far-right coalition allies over a US-backed statement indicating support for a pathway to Palestinian independence.
Netanyahu also opposes any Palestinian Authority involvement in Gaza.
MULTINATIONAL FORCE FOR POST-WAR GAZA
The Security Council resolution authorized a multinational force that Trump’s plan says will be temporarily deployed to Gaza to stabilize the territory. The resolution’s text also says member states could join a “Board of Peace” that would oversee reconstruction and economic recovery inside Gaza.
Hamas has criticized the resolution as failing to “live up to the demands and political and humanitarian rights” of the Palestinian people, who it said rejected an international guardianship mechanism of Gaza.
Any international force must only be deployed along Gaza’s borders to monitor the ceasefire and under UN supervision, Hamas said in a statement, warning that such a force would lose its neutrality if it tried to disarm the terrorist group.
Reham Owda, a Palestinian political analyst from Gaza, said the Hamas statement should be viewed as an objection, rather than complete rejection, in an attempt to negotiate mechanisms for the international force and the role of the board of peace.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on Oct. 10 as part of Trump’s multi-phased plan to end the war. Israel has partially withdrawn its forces but still controls 53% of Gaza and the sides have accused each other of violations.
Abu Abdallah, a businessman displaced in central Gaza, said Palestinians would support the deployment of international forces if it meant that Israel would fully withdraw its forces.
“Hamas can’t decide our fate alone, but we also don’t want to get rid of one occupation, Israel, and get another international occupation,” he said by phone.