Uncategorized
Senior Biden administration official: Israel’s Diaspora minister ‘does not understand the American Jewish Diaspora’
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration has joined the chorus of American voices criticizing Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli.
A photo making a face at a pro-Israel parade in New York City, and his unapologetic defense of the incident, is evidence that he is out of touch with the U.S. Jewish Diaspora, a senior Biden administration official told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“The fact that a senior Israeli official came to the United States and did not have a single public meeting with the American Jewish community, and the fact [that] his only public interaction is to flip someone off or ask them to smile is telling,” said the official, who deals extensively with Israeli dignitaries.
The official requested anonymity because of executive branch rules that prohibit speaking by name without authorization. His comments are the latest in a series of statements from the Biden administration expressing disapproval of the Israeli government’s policies or the conduct of its senior officials.
During his visit to the United States for the Celebrate Israel Parade on June 4, Chikli had a number of meetings with the leadership of Jewish groups in Washington and in New York. None was open to the public, and Chikli changed the location of the Washington meeting to avoid protesters. Other Israeli ministers also faced protests during recent visits to the United States.
Chikli did appear before a couple of larger audiences. He was one of several Israeli officials to march in the parade, which drew an estimated 40,000 people, and also spoke at a conference in New York hosted by the Jerusalem Post, the Israeli newspaper.
At the parade, Chikli was photographed making what appeared to many to be an obscene gesture toward a group protesting the Israeli government. He and his staff said he did not mean to make the gesture and said he was signaling to the protesters to smile.
The Biden administration official was especially incensed by Chikli’s defense of the incident in an appearance on Monday night on Israel TV, when Chikli called his critics’ tweets about the photograph “fake news.” He did not say the photograph itself was altered in any way.
“Blaming the photographer shows how much he does not understand the American Jewish Diaspora,” the official said. “His comments have ramifications. The Biden administration is watching.”
A spokesperson for Chikli declined to comment on the Biden administration official’s remarks.
Jacob Kornbluh, the Forward reporter who took the photo, defended its authenticity in a Twitter thread, and wrote that Chikli has accused him of “lashon hara,” or the Jewish concept about slander. The image “was not photoshopped and not taken out of context,” Kornbluh wrote.
The photo has become fodder for Chikli’s critics, who have circulated it widely online as evidence of his disdain for protesters who oppose Israel’s government and its efforts to weaken the judiciary. Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s parliamentary opposition, tweeted the photo and wrote, “This government never ceases to embarrass us internationally.”
Chikli’s appointment as Diaspora minister has antagonized some liberal segments of American Jewry because of his past statements deriding the Reform movement and the LGBTQ community. In his appearance on Monday he called J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East lobbying group, “hostile” to Israel and “not important.”
Israel’s governing coalition, which took office in December and includes far-right lawmakers, has repeatedly butted heads with the Biden administration. President Joe Biden and other officials have come out against the government’s efforts to weaken the judiciary, in addition to condemning moves toward settlement expansion in the West Bank and “provocative” conduct from a government minister. Biden has yet to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House and said in late March that he would not extend an invitation “in the near term.”
—
The post Senior Biden administration official: Israel’s Diaspora minister ‘does not understand the American Jewish Diaspora’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
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.”
Uncategorized
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.”
Uncategorized
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.