Uncategorized
Trump’s National Security Strategy reveals a painful truth: Israel is newly vulnerable
The central message of the United States’ new National Security Strategy should shake the foundations in Jerusalem: Under the Trump administration, the complex web of values-based diplomacy and global American leadership has been replaced by a Hobbesian vision of constant competition for resources based on self-interest alone.
In such a bleak landscape, the relationship with Israel, once deeply rooted in shared values and a foundational American commitment, is now based on interests also. The Middle East section of the strategy describes the security of Israel as an interest alongside the countries of the Gulf and other Arab nations.
“The key to successful relations with the Middle East is accepting the region, its leaders, and its nations as they are, while working together on areas of common interest,” the document says.
Past American administrations, including Republican ones like the two Bush presidencies, believed in spreading democracy – and in this context prized Israel as a fellow democracy, and indeed the only real one in the Middle East. Moreover, democracy and shared values, along with Israel’s special relationship with the U.S., were critical to Israel receiving the economically invaluable associate member status in the European Union in the 1990s.
The current document chides predecessors for trying to spread democracy to countries where it doesn’t fit and seems to value values not at all. So it is no surprise that there is no mention of the 2008 commitment – codified in law – to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge (which even has been dignified with an oft-used acronym, the QME).
The main concern, however, is the basic posture of the document, which places the supreme emphasis on interests and not values.
“The affairs of other countries are our concern only if their activities directly threaten our interests. Our elites badly miscalculated America’s willingness to shoulder forever global burdens to which the American people saw no connection to the national interest,” the document argues. “They allowed allies and partners to offload the cost of their defense onto the American people, and sometimes to suck us into conflicts and controversies central to their interests but peripheral or irrelevant to our own.”
The departure from every administration in the post-War era is clear and overt. Yet the implications for Israel have gone almost unnoticed for two reasons.
First, more sweeping changes have sent shockwaves throughout the world. Russia and China, which were not truly singled out as direct threats, can be relieved. But Europe absorbed a series of broadsides, from fantastical and quasi-racist notions that it will become majority non-white (described as “non-European”), to encouragement of its far-right parties that aim to break up the union and attacks on its efforts to regulate tech (which is annoying Elon Musk, who absorbed a $140 million fine a few weeks ago for X’s digital skullduggeries).
Second, in Israel, which should be worried and aware of the change, there is infantile adoration for President Trump based on the patently false notion that he is a huge friend.
Trump is not a friend of Israel; he is a friend of Netanyahu. Why? Because both men embody the same populist-nationalist worldview: They believe in elected autocracy where the government is all-powerful, they share a disdain for liberalism, and they use external threats — fabricated, exaggerated, or distorted — to confuse and manipulate the public. It is no accident that Trump is drawn more to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin than to Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky: Putin has succeeded in turning an entire country into an absolute dictatorship. This is a model that many right-wing populists around the world quietly admire. Netanyahu is no different.
Trump tried to help Netanyahu at key electoral junctures with U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and by moving the embassy to Jerusalem. But Trump’s true foreign policy — as now revealed in the administration’s most official document — points to something entirely different: The moment Israel does not serve an immediate self-interested need, it becomes simply one ally among many.
It is true that the document is non-binding, and Israel still has other agreements and arrangements in place. But the new NSS faithfully tracks with Trump’s dog-eat-dog worldview. His willingness, for example, to ignore the QME was on vivid display last month when he agreed to sell Saudi Arabia the same level of F35s as Israel, joking with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in televised comments from the White House that Israel won’t be happy with that.
In the past, U.S. support for Israel might have been connected also to electoral victory and especially fundraising from Jewish donors – but that too is changing as support for Israel plummets among the U.S. public, especially among the far-right isolationist wing, and among American youth, because of the country’s brutality in the Gaza war and the generally illiberal posture of the Netanyahu government.
When the American vision of foreign policy is stripped of its moral foundation — a foundation that shaped the post-World War II global order — Israel is in a particularly precarious position. For years, Washington’s unwavering support was built not only on shared interests but on an idea: a shared Western identity, a liberal democracy standing against oppressive forces. Contrary to what many in Israel believe, Democrats carried this banner no less, and perhaps more, than Republicans. They understood the value of the region’s only democracy, even when it faltered.
But Israel abandoned the Democrats with surprising ease. Netanyahu led a dangerous gamble: full alignment with the Republican Party, based on the belief that interests and sympathy among Trumpists were stronger. Yet a partnership based on anti-Muslim animus and global populism is not a values-based alliance, and therefore it is easily discarded. Israel may be left depending on the support in the U.S. of evangelical Christians, which comes with its own complications.
In an environment where America views the world as an endless struggle for material power, and has little interest in discouraging authoritarians or standing up for shared values, Israel’s position weakens dramatically.
The new U.S. strategy makes it clear more than ever: The cards Netanyahu placed on the table were dangerous from the outset. Instead of safeguarding the bipartisan alliance with Washington — the alliance that has been Israel’s ultimate pillar of support — he made it dependent on one side of the political map, and that side no longer believes in shared values or commitments to democracies. When everything is transactional, nothing is assured.
The post Trump’s National Security Strategy reveals a painful truth: Israel is newly vulnerable appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
JD Vance refuses to disavow Tucker Carlson
(JTA) — Vice President JD Vance acknowledged that he has “political disagreements” with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News personality who has spread antisemitic conspiracy theories and sparked a rift within the Republican Party.
But that won’t impact their friendship, Vance said during a press conference on Thursday at the White House.
“Everybody knows that Tucker Carlson and I are friends, and I think it’s very obvious that Tucker has said some things that I disagree with,” Vance said.
He pointed to Carlson’s criticisms of Vance’s boss, President Donald Trump, as well as Carlson’s suggestion that he would rather Democratic progressive Abdul El-Sayed win Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat than Republican Mike Rogers, as examples of where they disagree.
“Tucker is a friend despite the fact that we disagree on a number of things. And I’m not going to play the game where I throw friends under the bus because I have political disagreements with them,” Vance said.
Vance’s refusal to disavow Carlson comes days after he appeared in a closed-doors session in Las Vegas before hundreds of Republican Jewish Coalition members, some of whom have indicated that they would prefer Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Vance as Trump’s successor in 2028.
His RJC appearance started and ended with standing ovations for the vice president, and he spoke about the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship and denounced antisemitism during the 35-minute conversation. He angered a number of attendees and Jewish conservatives, however, when he sidestepped a question about Carlson and other controversial right-wing podcasters.
On Thursday, a reporter asked Vance about “those who are uneasy” with his close relationship to Carlson and believe that he is avoiding addressing questions about it.
“I’m not avoiding anything,” Vance countered.
After declining to distance himself from Carlson, Vance said that his refusal to do so should be a model for how other Americans engage in discourse across lines of disagreement.
“If you have a disagreement with someone politically — even over a deeply held issue — you should still be friends with that person, because the whole republic depends on people of different perspectives being able to talk to one another,” Vance said.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post JD Vance refuses to disavow Tucker Carlson appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Jerusalem cafe bows to Haredi protests, will no longer open on Shabbat
(JTA) — Cafe Basimta, the Jerusalem coffee shop that became a flashpoint in the city’s long-running dispute over Shabbat observance, will stop opening on Saturdays beginning this weekend after two months of weekly ultra-Orthodox protests.
The cafe said Thursday that the decision was made “after prolonged deliberation and with a heavy heart,” out of a desire to lower tensions and restore calm.
Eli Birnbaum, CEO of the messianic group Jews for Jesus, which runs the cafe, called the move a “difficult and painful decision” in the statement, saying it stemmed from a responsibility to its customers, its faith and Israeli society.
“Over the past few months, the cafe has become a focal point of friction and danger, a reality that contradicts our identity as Jews who believe in Jesus and our belief in loving others, respect and bringing people closer together, even with those who oppose us,” Birnbaum said.
He thanked Israel Police, the Jerusalem municipality and those who had come to support the cafe during the protests. “We now want to return Cafe Basimta to what it was intended to be: a calm, pleasant and open place for coffee, culture and dialogue.”
The decision marks a reversal for Cafe Basimta and its operator, Yoel Ben David, who said after the first protest on July 4 that the business would continue opening on weekends despite pressure from demonstrators. By late July, Ben David told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the protests had actually helped business financially, but added: “Me and the staff, we don’t love it. We’d all love it to just chill out.”
Basimta opened earlier this summer in Jerusalem’s central Nahlaot neighborhood, near the Mahane Yehuda market. It later emerged that the cafe was operated by Jews for Jesus, a missionary organization whose members identify as Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah.
The demonstrations began July 4 and continued for nine consecutive Saturdays through Aug. 29. At the first protest, dozens of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators, many of them minors, surrounded the cafe, banged on its windows and overturned tables, according to staff and video from the scene.
Later protests saw demonstrators break through police barricades and try to approach the cafe, while a bag containing feces was thrown at its entrance on another weekend. In August, a woman was accused of putting glue in the front-door lock, delaying the cafe’s opening.
Supporters meanwhile began turning up each Saturday to patronize the cafe, at times forming long lines outside, while police deployed officers and barricades to separate the two sides. Politicians including Yisrael Beytenu Chairman and former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and Democrats Chairman Yair Golan, a former IDF deputy chief of staff, also visited or backed supporters of the cafe.
Golan denounced Thursday’s decision as the result of “haredi terror,” saying weeks of violence, demonstrations and threats had ultimately forced the cafe to give in. Liberman said the closure showed growing religious coercion, writing on X that in “Israel 2026,” drinking coffee on Shabbat was forbidden while “hating, attacking and rioting on Shabbat was permitted.”
Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Adir Schwartz, who heads the pluralist Hitorerut municipal faction, also criticized the closure. Hitorerut said it was examining ways to operate a cafe on Saturdays in response to Basimta’s closure.
A spokesperson for Jews for Jesus told JTA that any such initiative was unrelated to Basimta or the organization.
Basimta’s ties to Jews for Jesus have also prompted a separate campaign against the cafe by anti-missionary activists. Rabbi Binyamin Vulcan, who heads the counter-missionary activities of Or LeAchim, told JTA in July that the organization was planning a weekday demonstration focused specifically on the cafe’s connection to Jews for Jesus and was seeking to have it closed through municipal channels.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Jerusalem cafe bows to Haredi protests, will no longer open on Shabbat appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Spain’s Jewish federation reports over 200 antisemitic incidents in 2025
(JTA) —
MADRID — Spain’s Jewish umbrella organization and a watchdog group have reported that antisemitic incidents rose 14.5% in 2025, warning that hatred was being “normalized.”
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) recorded 221 antisemitic incidents in Spain last year, up from 193 in 2024, in a report released Wednesday together with the Movement Against Intolerance (MCI), a Spanish human rights group. Spain is home to an estimated 40,000 to 70,000 Jews.
The trend matches an increase in hate incidents documented by the Spanish government. Spain’s Interior Ministry said in June that Jews were targeted in 69 hate crimes and incidents in 2025, jumping from 37 in 2024. Data from the Interior Ministry reflects crimes that are formally reported or detected by police, while the FCJE monitors incidents collected from community members, social media and other sources.
The new report came from the Observatory of Antisemitism, a joint initiative by the FCJE and the MCI to track antisemitism since Hamas’s attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s ensuing assault in Gaza. The initiative has followed incidents such as the vandalism of Holocaust memorials with swastikas, the desecration of Jewish graves and the individual targeting of Jews, including a group of French tourists who were harassed and spat on in July while leaving a synagogue in Barcelona.
“Since October 7, 2023, Spanish Jews have had to go to our gathering places with special security measures,” FCJE president David Obadía said in a statement. “Our children are the only ones who go to school with a police presence, and insults and discrimination are part of our reality practically every day.”
María Royo, a spokesperson for the FCJE, blamed “campaigns against Israel” for the rise in antisemitic incidents. She told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that some groups, saying Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, also “blame all Jews.”
“The security forces are doing everything within their power, but the government, politicians, media and opinion leaders could be much more rigorous and careful to prevent this situation,” said Royo.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is among Europe’s most vocal critics of Israel, which he says has committed genocide. The Israeli government has repeatedly said the Spanish government is antisemitic, an accusation that Spain strongly rejects.
Esteban Ibarra, the president of the MCI, said in a statement that antisemitism should be distinguished from debates about Israel.
“Antisemitism is not an opinion or a political disagreement: it is a form of hatred and discrimination against Jews,” said Ibarra. “When it is tolerated, normalized or minimized, coexistence deteriorates and democracy is weakened.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Spain’s Jewish federation reports over 200 antisemitic incidents in 2025 appeared first on The Forward.
