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NYC’s Celebrate Israel Parade set to draw big crowds — and protests — amid Israel’s political turmoil
(New York Jewish Week) — For the first time in a dozen years, Ameinu, the former Labor Zionist Alliance, will be marching in the Celebrate Israel Parade, the annual gathering that draws tens of thousands of marchers and spectators along Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.
“It was becoming harder to identify with the overall vibe of the march,” Kenneth Bob, the national president of the liberal organization, said about why the group stopped participating. “It didn’t reflect our more nuanced values about Israel. And because of restrictions on what we could put on our signs, it made it difficult for us to express our brand of Zionism.”
But this year, Ameinu will be back, wearing T-shirts that read in Hebrew on the front, “Zionism = Democracy,” and on the back in English, “Marching for Democracy.” At a time of turmoil in Israel, when hundreds of thousands of Israelis are taking to the streets in protest of efforts by Israel’s right-wing government to transform its judiciary, Ameinu’s participation — and objections voiced by at least one pro-Israel activist group — are signs of the political currents swirling around the largest Zionist solidarity event outside of Israel.
“We will be reminding other participants and those watching the parade that we are marching in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel and around the world who are fighting for the future of the state,” the organization said on its website.
Despite or perhaps because of those political currents, Jewish organizations across the political spectrum are gearing up for what organizers say will be one of the largest Celebrate Israel parades ever on Sunday, June 4, to mark Israel’s 75th birthday. Several groups are marching for the first time, and Long Island has the most marchers in a decade.
Organizers says more than 40,000 people are expected to march — some in sympathy with the Israeli protesters, others who support the government’s proposed overhaul, and still others who say the 75th anniversary of the Jewish state should be an occasion for Jewish solidarity no matter who heads its government or the policies they promote.
To underscore that last message, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the parade’s sponsor, generated, for the second year, a letter signed by area rabbis from all denominations urging participation in the parade.
“Events like the parade bridge the divide between us, whether political, religious, or cultural,” the letter reads. “It’s a chance for us to gather as Jews and walk together, showing the world that we are one community even when we disagree.”
Plans by Israel’s acting consul general in New York, Israel Nitzan, may test that proposition. Nitzan will lead an Israeli delegation of as many as 18 cabinet ministers and other Knesset members, which would be the most ever to attend the parade. They include the minister of economy and industry, Nir Barkat, and the minister of Diaspora affairs, Amichai Chikli, as well as Simcha Rothman, the chair of the law and justice committee who is an architect of the judicial reforms and has been pressing the case for them with U.S. Jews. The two most controversial members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, the far-right ideologues Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, are not scheduled to attend.
Israeli New Yorkers who have been protesting the government’s judicial overhaul plans have already objected to the government officials’ inclusion. Shany Granot-Lubaton, the organizer of the UnXeptable-Saving Israeli Democracy activist group, said they expect more than 400 of their supporters to follow the Israeli ministers and Simcha Rothman, a member of the Knesset for the far-right Religious Zionist Party, as they travel throughout the city in the coming days for the parade and a conference the same day organized by the nationalist news agency Arutz Sheva.
UnXeptable issued an open letter urging the organizers “to refrain from allowing Israeli government ministers to march at the head of the parade,” saying the lawmakers “have not earned the respect of your allies and friends in Israel, and many of your own community members, here in America.”
“They will not have a peaceful vacation in New York City,” Granot-Lubaton told the New York Jewish Week. “We served our time in the army and are fighting for Israel because we love it and care for it and not for any other reason. Nobody loves Israel more than us.”
Protesters attend a massive demonstration against proposed judicial reforms in front of the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, Feb. 13, 2023. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
Rabbi Rachel Ain, the rabbi of the Conservative Sutton Place Synagogue, was one of the 15 rabbis who signed the letter urging participation in the parade. Her synagogue has presented programs to explain the complexities of the political struggle in Israel today, but she said the unrest has “not affected our support for Israel; my synagogue is happy to participate in the parade.”
Ain added, “You can love and support the Jewish state and also understand that things are complicated.”
Ammiel Hirsch, rabbi of the Reform Stephen Wise Free Synagogue and former head of ARZA, the Reform movement’s Zionist organization, also signed the statement.
“It is more important than ever to participate in the Celebrate Israel Parade because it represents our commitment not to elements of this government but to our relationship with the people, the state of Israel, and the Zionist ideal,” said Hirsch. “The best response is not to walk away but to double down with those in Israel who are as distressed as we are and want to see a more representative Israeli government.”
The parade has received an endorsement from Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who in March warned that political divides in Israel could lead to “a real civil war.”
The parade, he said in a video message shared by the JCRC, “promises to be a powerful reminder of everything that holds us together as one proud people. … I marched myself as a student in Ramaz [High School] and it was a terrific experience.”
The largest funder of the parade is UJA-Federation of New York, which contributes $200,000. (UJA-Federation is also a funder of 70 Faces Media, the New York Jewish Week’s parent company.) This year for the first time it is contributing an additional $75,000 to sponsor a Celebrate Israel “Block Party” on 63rd Street that will run during the day. Vendors will sell kosher food, and there will be Jewish and Israeli crafts and various children’s activities.
There will be participation from “every part of the Jewish community,” according to Howard Pollack, director of the parade. “I’ve been getting emails from people asking how they can march and where can they sit to enjoy the parade. The enthusiasm is like nothing I have ever seen before. We normally have groups from out-of-state, but this year for the 75th anniversary, we have a lot more. They are coming from Florida, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut.”
The parade will include 20 floats, 13 marching bands and the same number of dance groups. Musicians Matisyahu, the Maccabeats and Harel Skaat will each be performing from different floats.
Mindy Perlmutter, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council-Long island, said 22 groups with about 500 marchers will take part under the JCRC-LI banner — what she called the largest number in at least a decade.
Ameinu will be marching under the banner of the American Zionist Movement. They are among about a dozen of AZM’s 41 affiliated organizations, including Hadassah and Young Judaea, that will be marching together. Other affiliates will march under their own banners, according to Herbert Block, AZM’s executive director.
A contingent on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue during the Celebrate Israel Parade, June 2, 2019. (Courtesy JCRC-NY)
Also marching under the AZM banner for the first time will be the Baltimore Zionist District, which heeded the AZM’s call for members to make a special effort to join the parade to celebrate Israel’s 75th birthday. Also coming for the first time will be representatives from the Druze Zionist Organization in Israel, representing a non-Jewish minority living primarily in Israel’s north.
“There will be one or two from Israel and a couple who live in New York,” Block said. “They will march with the Druze flag in our contingent.”
Members of the Givati Brigade Association, which supports the elite unit of the Israel Defense Forces, will also marching for the first time. Some members of the unit were among the hundreds of Israeli reservists who announced they would boycott reserve duty before the judicial reforms were suspended this spring.
“We hope people will understand how important it is to support not only the Givati Brigade but the IDF in general,” said Itzhak Levit, chair of the GBA. “The Givati Brigade has been involved in all military operations since 1948. Former members of the brigade who live in New York will join us in the parade; we expect around 25.”
Over the decades some have noted that the parade, launched in 1964, gradually drew less grassroots support than it did large contingents of children bused in from various Jewish day schools. And there have been political disputes: In 2015, in addition to guidelines saying that all groups marching must “recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people,” parade organizers banned groups that advocate for the boycott against Israel. A decade ago there were calls from the right to ban the New Israel Fund and other left-wing groups from marching. And in 2012, LGBTQ Jews marched for the first time under the banner of Manhattan’s Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, after decades in which LGBTQ Jews were prevented from marching with signage identifying them as gay and lesbian.
Gideon Taylor, CEO of JCRC-NY, the UJA-Federation agency that runs the parade, said there were no new guidelines issued this year concerning the unrest in Israel or any other topic.
The parade has also attracted small groups of pro-Palestinian protesters, as well as a small contingent from Neturei Karta, the anti-Zionist Hasidic sect.
Kenneth Bob, the Ameinu president, told the New York Jewish Week that this “is an important year to be marching. Israel is celebrating its 75th birthday and with all that is going on in Israel we thought this is the time to march for Israel and in support of the protestors. Once we came up with the idea to combine our love for Israel with support for the demonstrators [in Israel], it was a quick and easy decision to decide to march; it’s a good fit for us.”
The Celebrate Israel Parade kicks off on Sunday, June 4, at 11:30 a.m. at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street and will march to 74th Street. The Celebrate Israel Block Party will take place on 63rd Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues from 11 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. The parade will be televised on Channel 9 in New York and livestreamed on the website celebrateisraelny.org.
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The post NYC’s Celebrate Israel Parade set to draw big crowds — and protests — amid Israel’s political turmoil appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Netanyahu reveals prostate cancer treatment, says he hid diagnosis during Iran war
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Friday that he had recently undergone treatment for early-stage prostate cancer, adding that he kept the diagnosis private amid the war with Iran.
“I requested to delay its publication by two months so that it would not be released at the height of the war, in order not to allow the Iranian terror regime to spread even more false propaganda against Israel,” Netanyahu wrote in a post on X.
The Israeli leader said the treatment “removed the problem and left no trace of it” and he was now in “excellent physical condition.”
The director of the Sharett Oncology Institute at Hadassah Medical Center, Aron Popovtzer, said in a video statement, that a routine medical examination following Netanyahu’s December 2024 prostate removal surgery had uncovered a 0.35-inch, early stage adenocarcinoma. Popovtzer said that Netanyahu had undergone radiation treatment “two and a half months ago,” ahead of the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February, and that he had recently undergone a medical test that found the cancer had “disappeared.”
Netanyahu, 76, added that the tumor was “very common among men my age,” and that, upon examination, “it turned out to be a very early stage of a malignant tumor, with no spread or metastases whatsoever.”
The announcement of the Israeli leader’s diagnosis, which follows online rumors falsely speculating that he had died in March, comes as Israel approaches an election cycle expected in the next six months. Netanyahu’s approval ratings have remained volatile amid the Iran war, with Hebrew University reporting earlier this month that 10% of Israelis viewed the war as successful, while support for Netanyahu was at 34%.
Netanyahu signaled in his post that his health revelation should not cause anyone to doubt his ability to lead.
“You already know me,” Netanyahu wrote. “When I’m given information in time about a potential danger, I want to address it immediately. This is true on the national level and also on the personal level. That’s what I did.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Netanyahu reveals prostate cancer treatment, says he hid diagnosis during Iran war appeared first on The Forward.
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US Legal Adviser Says Iran War Justified by Tehran’s ‘Aggression’ Over Decades
US President Donald Trump points as he delivers a speech during the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) annual fundraising dinner in Washington, DC, US, March 25, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
The US State Department’s top lawyer has argued that President Donald Trump’s war with Iran was launched in self-defense and to defend US ally Israel, arguing the bombing campaign was not the start of a new war but the continuation of an ongoing conflict.
State Department Legal Adviser Reed Rubinstein made the arguments in a statement released days before a May 1 deadline for the Trump administration to obtain approval for the war from Congress under the 1973 War Powers Act or move to end it.
The US and Israel began air strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, killing Iran‘s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and much of the country’s leadership in the initial attacks. Trump said at the time the strikes, which happened just days after inconclusive talks between US and Iranian negotiators, were aimed at destroying Iranian missiles and annihilating its navy and preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Trump also urged Iranians to overthrow their government.
Many legal experts say the attacks were unjustified under the United Nations Charter, which states that member states must refrain from using force or the threat of force against other states except when force is authorized by the UN Security Council or used in self-defense.
The U.S. was “engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally, as well as in the exercise of the United States’ own inherent right of self-defense,” Rubinstein said, citing what he called “Iran‘s malign aggression over decades” since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, including attacks by Iranian proxies on US forces and Israel, Iranian missile strikes against Israel in 2024, and Tehran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“In truth, the United States is acting well within the recognized contours of international law relating to the use of force and self-defense,” he added.
Iran has long denied accusations by Western powers that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
The statement, entitled “Operation Epic Fury and International Law,” was posted on the State Department’s website on Tuesday but, unlike most of the department’s statements, it was not sent to the media or published on official social media channels.
Iran responded to the US and Israeli attacks by launching missiles and drones against US targets, its Middle East neighbors, and shipping, snarling the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway. The war, which has sparked an energy shock and concerns about wider economic fallout, has been paused since an April 8 ceasefire.
Opinion polls show the war is unpopular with Americans, who have seen the prices of fuel, food, and other products jump during the past eight weeks. Reuters/Ipsos poll results released on Friday showed a clear majority of Americans blame Trump for surging gasoline prices, which are weighing on his Republican Party ahead of the midterm elections in November.
Rubinstein concluded the campaign that began in late February was “part of an armed conflict with Iran that has been ongoing for years” and said it was unnecessary to assess whether an Iranian attack on the US or an ally was imminent.
“The US has acted well within its international law obligations with respect to its use of force since operations began in late February. Iran, by contrast, has acted as any reasonable observer would have expected – lashing out against its neighbors, targeting Israeli civilians, murdering its own people, unlawfully closing the Strait of Hormuz, and wreaking havoc throughout the region,” Rubinstein said.
Congressional aides said Rubinstein’s statement was issued by the Trump administration likely to get ahead of a May 1 deadline to ask Congress to authorize the war. The War Powers Act says the US president must end any ongoing conflict after 60 days until he obtains that authorization to continue. A president can obtain a 30-day extension if he certifies in writing, to Congress, that the continuing use of armed force is necessary.
Democrats, who are in the minority in both chambers of Congress, have tried repeatedly since the war began to pass resolutions ending the conflict until Trump obtains congressional approval, but almost all Republicans have voted to block them.
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Pentagon Email Floats Suspending Spain From NATO, Other Steps Over Iran Rift, Source Says
Spanish soldiers take part in Exercise Dynamic Mariner 25 military drill training, which involves naval forces from several NATO members, at Retin beach, in the Atlantic Ocean, in Barbate, Spain, March 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jon Nazca
An internal Pentagon email outlines options for the United States to punish NATO allies it believes failed to support US operations in the war with Iran, including suspending Spain from the alliance and reviewing the US position on Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands, a US official told Reuters.
The policy options are detailed in a note prepared by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon‘s top policy adviser, who expressed frustration at some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant the United States access, basing, and overflight rights – known as ABO – for the Iran war, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the email.
Colby wrote that ABO is “just the absolute baseline for NATO,” according to the official, who added that the options were circulating at high levels in the Pentagon.
One option in the email envisions suspending “difficult” countries from important or prestigious positions at NATO, the official said.
President Donald Trump has harshly criticized NATO allies for not sending their navies to help open the Strait of Hormuz, which was closed to global shipping following the start of the air war on Feb. 28.
He has also declared he is considering withdrawing from the alliance.
“Wouldn’t you if you were me?” Trump asked Reuters in an April 1 interview, in response to a question about whether the US pulling out of NATO was a possibility.
But the email does not suggest that the United States do so, the official said. It also does not propose closing bases in Europe.
The official declined to say whether the options included a widely expected US drawdown of some forces from Europe, however.
Asked for comment on the email, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson responded: “As President Trump has said, despite everything that the United States has done for our NATO allies, they were not there for us.”
“The War Department will ensure that the president has credible options to ensure that our allies are no longer a paper tiger and instead do their part. We have no further comment on any internal deliberations to that effect,” Wilson said.
Asked whether it is possible to suspend a NATO ally, a NATO official said that “NATO’s founding treaty does not foresee any provision for suspension of NATO membership.”
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SEES EUROPEAN ‘SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT’
The US-Israeli war with Iran has raised serious questions about the future of the 76-year-old bloc and provoked unprecedented concern that the US might not come to the aid of European allies should they be attacked, analysts and diplomats say.
Britain, France, and others say that joining the US naval blockade would amount to entering the war, but that they would be willing to help keep the strait open once there was a lasting ceasefire or the conflict ended.
But Trump administration officials have stressed that NATO cannot be a one-way street.
They have expressed frustration with Spain, where the Socialist leadership said it would not allow its bases or airspace to be used to attack Iran. The United States has two important military bases in Spain: Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base.
The policy options outlined in the email would be intended to send a strong signal to NATO allies with the goal of “decreasing the sense of entitlement on the part of the Europeans,” the official said, summarizing the email.
The option to suspend Spain from the alliance would have a limited effect on US military operations but a significant symbolic impact, the email argues.
The official did not disclose how the United States might pursue suspending Spain from the alliance.
“We do not work off emails. We work off official documents and government positions, in this case of the United States,” Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez said when asked about the report ahead of a meeting of European Union leaders in Cyprus to discuss topics including NATO‘s mutual assistance clause.
POSITION ON FALKLAND ISLANDS COULD BE RECONSIDERED
The memo also includes an option to consider reassessing US diplomatic support for longstanding European “imperial possessions,” such as the Falkland Islands near Argentina.
The State Department’s website states that the islands are administered by the United Kingdom but are still claimed by Argentina, whose libertarian President Javier Milei is a Trump ally.
Milei was upbeat about the prospects.
“We are doing everything humanly possible so that the Argentine Malvinas, the islands, the entire territory return to the hands of Argentina,” Milei said in a radio interview he posted on his X account on Friday.
“We’re making progress like never before.”
Britain and Argentina fought a brief war in 1982 over the islands after Argentina made a failed bid to take them. Some 650 Argentine soldiers and 255 British troops died before Argentina surrendered.
A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the sovereignty of the islands rests with Britain.
“Sovereignty rests with the UK and the islands’ right to self-determination is paramount. It’s been our consistent position and will remain the case,” the spokesperson told reporters on Friday.
Trump has repeatedly insulted Starmer, calling him cowardly because of his unwillingness to join the US war with Iran, saying he was “No Winston Churchill” and describing Britain’s aircraft carriers as “toys.”
Britain initially did not grant a request from the US to allow its aircraft to attack Iran from two British bases, but later agreed to allow defensive missions aimed at protecting residents of the region, including British citizens, amid Iranian retaliation.
Addressing reporters at the Pentagon earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “a lot has been laid bare” by the war with Iran, noting that Iran‘s longer-range missiles cannot hit the United States but can reach Europe.
“We get questions, or roadblocks, or hesitations … You don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them,” Hegseth said.