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Trump’s ambassador to Israel criticizes its government’s plans for judicial reform
(JTA) — When David Friedman served as ambassador to Israel under former President Donald Trump, he was known for helping to shepherd through policies favored by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
That’s why it’s remarkable that he vocally criticized one of Netanyahu’s signature policy goals: the controversial proposal to overhaul Israel’s judiciary.
While attending a session of a conservative political conference last week in Israel, Friedman told Israeli lawmaker Simcha Rothman, an architect of the judicial reform, that the legislation “was going too far for me and for many Americans” according to attendees who spoke to Axios.
Rothman, a member of the far-right Religious Zionism party who chairs the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, said the reform would make Israel’s courts resemble the U.S. legal system. Friedman countered that that comparison is off-base because an element of the reform, which would allow a majority of parliament to override the court’s authority, could threaten minority rights.
“You compare this to the U.S., but it doesn’t work like that in our system,” Friedman said, according to Axios. The conference was sponsored by the Tikvah Fund and the Hertog Foundation, conservative U.S. Jewish groups that back many of Netanyahu’s policies. Netanyahu has sought American support, particularly among conservatives, for his judicial reforms.
Israel’s Supreme Court has issued rulings protecting the rights of minorities, including Arab citizens of Israel, non-Orthodox Jewish denominations, and LGBTQ people. The U.S. Supreme Court also has struck down laws passed in Congress, citing the U.S. Constitution. Israel lacks a constitution, so its Supreme Court cites a set of foundational acts called basic laws, which function as a quasi-constitution. It also cites common law, the country’s Declaration of Independence, Jewish law and other sources in coming to its decisions.
Friedman did not respond to a request for comment via Twitter direct message.
Friedman, who was Donald Trump’s bankruptcy lawyer and his ambassador to Israel throughout his presidency, forged a close alliance with Netanyahu, helping to see through radical changes in U.S. Israel policy long sought by the Israeli right, including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
A longtime philanthropic backer of Israeli West Bank settlements, Friedman reportedly worked with Netanyahu to use a peace proposal advanced by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and top Middle East adviser, as a pretext to annex parts of the West Bank. Kushner opposed Friedman’s initiative and eventually nixed the plan. (That account was revealed in a book by Kushner. Friedman has denied it.)
Friedman’s closeness to Trump and to Netanyahu is a source of pride for him, and he cites both men as friends on the speaking circuit. But this is not the first time he has broken with them on a matter of principle: Last year he earned Trump’s ire by criticizing the former president for meeting with two antisemites, the rapper Kanye West and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
Friedman told Rothman he was in favor of some parts of the judicial reform. Like many American Jewish public figures, he has endorsed Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s calls for compromise between the Knesset’s governing coalition and opposition.
Opposition leaders say they are ready to negotiation as long as Netanyahu stops advancing the court reform legislation. The reforms have sparked a major political crisis in Israel, bringing hundreds of thousands of people into the streets for weekly protests. On Wednesday evening, a group of Israeli lawmakers from the coalition and opposition jointly endorsed compromise negotiations.
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The post Trump’s ambassador to Israel criticizes its government’s plans for judicial reform appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Revealed: Hamas Money Laundering Network in Turkey Linked to Iran
Presidents Hassan Rouhani of Iran, Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Vladimir Putin of Russia pose for a picture after a news conference during their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, September 16, 2019. Photo: Pavel Golovkin/Pool via REUTERS.
i24 News – The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet revealed on Sunday that Hamas, under the direction of Iran, is operating a clandestine network of money exchangers in the heart of Turkey, using the country’s financial infrastructure to fund terrorist activities against Israel.
According to documents obtained by Israeli authorities, the network is composed primarily of Gazans who manage the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars directly to Hamas and its leadership.
These funds are received from Iranian sources, stored, and then forwarded to the terrorist organization to support its operations.
The documents released by the IDF detail a portion of these financial activities, including transactions totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Three individuals of Gazan origin have been identified as key operatives within the network. Tamer Hassan, a senior official in Hamas’s Ministry of Finance, resides in Turkey and operates under the leadership of Khalil al-Hayya. Khalil Farawneh and Fareed Abu Dayer also act as money changers within the network, facilitating the movement of funds under Iranian guidance.
Israeli authorities stressed that despite the devastation in Gaza, Hamas continues to pursue terrorist plots against Israel and is actively attempting to rebuild its capabilities, including through operations outside the Strip.
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Israel’s Netanyahu to Discuss Second Phase of Gaza Plan with Trump Later This Month
Trucks transport tanks on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, Israel, November 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the second phase of a US plan to end the war in Gaza was close, but cautioned several key issues still needed to be resolved, including whether a multinational security force would be deployed.
Netanyahu, speaking to reporters alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Jerusalem, said that he would hold important discussions with US President Donald Trump at the end of the month on how to ensure the plan’s second phase was achieved.
The prime minister’s office in November said that Trump had invited Netanyahu to the White House “in the near future,” although a date for the visit has not yet been made public.
Netanyahu said that he would discuss with Trump how to bring an end to Hamas rule in Gaza. A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is entering its second month, although both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the truce agreement.
Netanyahu said that it was important to ensure Hamas not only upholds the ceasefire but also follows through on “their commitment” to the plan to disarm and for Gaza to be demilitarized.
Israel retained control of 53 percent of Gaza under the first phase of Trump’s plan, which involved the release of hostages held by terrorists in Gaza and of Palestinians detained by Israel. The final hostage remains to be handed over are those of an Israeli police officer killed on October 7, 2023 fighting Gazan militants who had invaded Israel.
“We’ll get him out,” Netanyahu said.
Since the ceasefire started in October, the terrorist group has reestablished itself in the rest of Gaza.
GERMAN CHANCELLOR: PHASE TWO MUST COME NOW
According to the plan, Israel is to pull back further in the second phase as a transitional authority is established in Gaza and a multinational security force is deployed, Hamas is disarmed, and reconstruction begins.
A multinational coordination center has been established in Israel, but there are no deadlines in the plan and officials involved say that efforts to advance it have stalled.
“What will be the timeline? What are the forces that are coming in? Will we have international forces? If not, what are the alternatives? These are all topics that are being discussed,” Netanyahu said, describing them as central issues.
Merz said that Germany was willing to help rebuild Gaza but would wait for Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump, and for clarity on what Washington was prepared to do, before Berlin decides what it would contribute but that phase two “must come now.”
NETANYAHU: WEST BANK ANNEXATION REMAINS A SUBJECT OF DISCUSSION
Netanyahu said that he would also discuss with Trump “opportunities for peace,” an apparent reference to US efforts for Israel to establish formal ties with Arab and Muslim states.
“We believe there’s a path to advance a broader peace with the Arab states, and a path also to establish a workable peace with our Palestinian neighbors,” Netanyahu said, asserting Israel would always insist on security control of the West Bank.
Trump has said he promised Muslim leaders that Israel would not annex the West Bank, where Netanyahu’s government is backing the development of Jewish settlements.
The “question of political annexation” of the West Bank remains a subject of discussion, Netanyahu said.
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Frank Gehry, renowned architect who began life as Frank Goldberg, dies at 96
(JTA) — Frank Gehry, a Jewish architect who became one of the world’s most renowned innovators in his field for his contributions to modernist architecture, including the famed Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, has died at 96.
His death following a brief respiratory illness was confirmed on Friday by the chief of staff at his firm, Meaghan Lloyd, according to the New York Times.
Gehry was born Ephraim Owen Goldberg on Feb. 28, 1929, to a Jewish family in Toronto. In 1947, Gehry moved to Los Angeles with his family and later went on to graduate from the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture in 1954.
The same year, he changed his name to Gehry at the behest of his first wife who was “worried about antisemitism and thought it sounded less Jewish.” He would later say he would not make the choice again.
Among Gehry’s most acclaimed works, which feature his signature, sculptural style, are the Bilbao Guggenheim, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris and the DZ Bank Building in Berlin.
Gehry also often returned to the motif of a fish, including two large fish sculptures in the World Trade Center in New York City and on Barcelona’s seafront. Some tied the fish motif to his recollections about his Jewish grandmother’s trips to the fishmonger to prepare for Shabbat each week.
“We’d put it in the bathtub,” Gehry said, according to the New York Times. “And I’d play with this fish for a day until she killed it and made gefilte fish.”
Gehry began to identify as an atheist shortly after his bar mitzvah. But in 2018, while he was working on ANU-Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, he told the Jewish Journal that Judaism had influenced his career nonetheless.
“There’s a curiosity built into the [Jewish] culture,” he said. “I grew up under that. My grandfather read Talmud to me. That’s one of the Jewish things I hang on to probably — that philosophy from that religion. Which is separate from God. It’s more ephemeral. I was brought up with that curiosity. I call it a healthy curiosity. Maybe it is something that the religion has produced. I don’t know. It’s certainly a positive thing.”
In 1989, Gehry won the prestigious Pritzker Prize, considered one of the top awards in the field of architecture, and in 1999 won the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects. In 2007, Gehry also received the Jerusalem Prize for Arts and Letters and in 2016 won the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-president Barack Obama.
His survivors include his wife, Berta Isabel Aguilera, daughter Brina, and sons Alejandro and Samuel. Another daughter, Leslie Gehry Brenner, died of cancer in 2008.
The post Frank Gehry, renowned architect who began life as Frank Goldberg, dies at 96 appeared first on The Forward.