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This Week:

• Board of Peace Launched in Davos
• Hit Iran in Its Shadow Bank Accounts
• On Antisemitism
• Short Takes
• Week's Best Tweets

Board of Peace Launched in Davos

JNS reports that earlier today, President Donald Trump launched his Board of Peace at a ceremony on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, attended by representatives of at least 18 nations.

Leaders and representatives from Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kosovo, Mongolia, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan were among those on stage as Trump spoke during the signing ceremony, according to media reports.

During the event, Jared Kushner presented plans to disarm Hamas and develop the Gaza Strip into a free market hub for tourism with an airport and seaport after U.S.-backed reconstruction efforts conclude by 2035. Watch his remarks here.

The Board of Peace's "inaugural resolution," which Pres. Trump signed at the ceremony, is to oversee the demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza. The Gaza Executive Board, the committee to oversee the work in Gaza, has become a source of friction between the US and Israel, because it includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi and Egyptian General Intelligence Service Director Maj. Gen. Hassan Rashad. Israel names those men as partners and enablers of Hamas, and considers them unacceptable as participants in the work of dismantling the terror organization in Gaza.

The Jewish Insider notes that some 35 of the 50 invited countries agreed to join the Board of Peace according to Reuters, although not all of them attended the event in Davos. Among the other countries that reportedly agreed to join are Albania, Belarus, Egypt, Kazahkstan, and Vietnam. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the invitation to join the Board of Peace but was not present in Davos.

The United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Norway, and Slovenia have declined to join the Board of Peace. Several other countries have not yet responded.

Read the full text of the charter of the Board of Peace here.

Hit Iran in Its Shadow Bank Accounts

Michael Doran, director of the Middle East center at the Hudson Institute, writes at the Wall Street Journal:

Whether or not President Trump orders a military strike on Iran, he ought to seize the billions of dollars its rulers have hidden offshore. Freezing these assets could have an effect comparable to military attack—at a fraction of the risk.

The US Treasury knows where Iran's money is, but successive administrations have hesitated to act for fear of damaging relations with a valued ally—the United Arab Emirates. It's time to reconsider that calculation.

Doran explains that Iran evades US sanctions via an extensive shadow banking system, a system of shell companies and banks that allow Iran to move money at scale. This allows Iran to sell oil to China and launder the proceeds to procure technology for its military and nuclear programs. Doran recommends that the Trump administration strongly enforce existing regulations and prevent the continuing harm of this system, which benefits both Iran and China.

On Antisemitism

Two important articles this week delve into antisemitism in America.

Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) writes at the Jerusalem Post that he took his entire congressional staff to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum recently:

It was not a ceremonial stop or a symbolic outing: It was a deliberate act of education and responsibility. Everyone who serves in government should understand how quickly a society can unravel when hatred is normalized, truth is distorted, and silence replaces courage.

The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers – it began with words. It began with propaganda, scapegoating, and the slow conditioning of a people to see their Jewish neighbors as "other." It began when lies were repeated often enough to sound reasonable. It began when institutions failed to push back, and when good

people told themselves the danger was exaggerated or temporary.

Those are the lessons I wanted my team to see, face to face.

…As a Member of Congress, I have a responsibility not only to legislate, but to lead. Leadership means ensuring that the staff in my office understands what is at stake. It means preparing my team to recognize early warning signs. It means making clear that indifference is not an option.

Over at Tablet magazine, Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former senior White House aide, asks, "Are Jews still welcome in the White House?"

The recent revelation that Kamala Harris' team asked Pennsylvania's Jewish governor, Josh Shapiro, whether he was an Israeli agent during the vice presidential vetting process shows the dangerous degree to which antisemitic views have infected American politics. This episode, coupled with wider concerns about rising antisemitism on both the left and the right, raises the concern that antisemitism could be impeding Jewish participation in political life at the highest levels.

Troy gives an overview the history of Jews and Presidents, from Thomas Jefferson's appointment of Reuben Etting as US marshal for Maryland to the Jewish members of FDR's "kitchen cabinet". He notes that high-level Jewish appointments have become so widespread in recent decades that they don't attract much attention. In addition, there are strong Jewish connections to 21^st-century First Families - the Clinton, Biden, and Trump families have all welcomed Jewish members.

The current resurgence of antisemitism raises serious concerns about the future of Jews in public life. However, Troy writes:

Jews and Jewish ideas have been an essential part of this nation since its founding. While the current attacks on Jews from both the left and the right are by no means unique in the context of Jewish history, they are alien to American political culture—which is what makes this moment frightening. The attempt to mainstream antisemitism on both the left and the right should be properly understood as an attack by extremists in both parties on the existing political culture and on the principles of the American founding.

The American tradition is far more closely linked to the Jews and their many contributions to it than it is to the antisemites of the left or the right, whose hatred of the Jews reveals a rejection of that tradition—which they hope to reorder and replace with various European-born ideologies, from communism to fascism to theocracy, that have proven toxic to their political hosts. As Americans, Jews must lean in rather than retreat in the face of antisemitism, which in turn entails an embrace of this nation's philosemitic and Enlightenment-based founding principles.

In America, Jews belong everywhere, from the White House on down. Any future White House that rejects Jews would be reflecting its own rejection of the American founding tradition.

Short Takes

NY Post: Bernie Sanders skipped every meeting for 18 years while serving on Holocaust Museum board
Sen. Bernie Sanders has served on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's board for 18 years, but hasn't attended a single meeting — inspiring a bipartisan push to oust him, The Post has learned.

Sanders (I-Vt.) was appointed in 2007 to the Holocaust Memorial Council, which meets twice a year to oversee the landmark DC museum located about 2 miles from the Capitol.

Records supplied to The Post by museum staff show that Sanders, who mainstreamed democratic socialism with campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, has missed every meeting of the board since his appointment.

[A dozen members of the bipartisan council signed] a letter asking Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to replace Sanders — citing his non-attendance and repeated claims that Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip.

ICYMI: Doran: The Jewish Test
Time and again, great powers that expelled or demonized a small people with outsize talents have paid a lasting price. Those that learned how to absorb and use that talent gained power.

…From its founding, the American order combined open institutions, legal equality, and access to capital at continental scale. Jewish talent entered that system not as a protected class or a tolerated minority, but as free participants in a competitive society. The result was productivity: a political economy confident enough to absorb Jewish excellence without treating it as a conspiracy.

The alliance with the Jews—first as a people, later as a state—has always been a test of political maturity. Jews are few, visible, and unusually capable; Israel is small, exposed, and unusually effective. A great power that fears and resents talent will make bad strategic choices and will pay dearly for them. That cost remains largely unacknowledged in a debate increasingly dominated by people riddled with resentments and wrestling with demons.

History, including American history, has already run the experiment that [Tucker] Carlson and his cohort are foisting on us. The empires that labeled Jewish talent as a threat lie in ruins. To repeat their mistakes would be an act of colossal stupidity at odds with our history and traditions. The founders of our republic knew better.

Mandel: The human cost of the Minnesota fraud scandal

Minnesota has emerged as the center of one of the largest public benefits fraud scandals in modern American history, a distinction that has drawn intense scrutiny from Congress and federal investigators while raising unsettling questions about what happens to the most vulnerable when oversight fails.

…Every dollar lost to abuse is a dollar not spent on real people whose health, safety, and stability depend on those services. When the government fails to stop fraud early, the result is not just waste but neglect, abandonment, and, in some cases, preventable tragedy.

…Generosity without accountability invites exploitation, and exploitation inevitably harms the people these programs are meant to serve. Expanding funding while neglecting enforcement creates a dangerous illusion of compassion, one that looks impressive during political visits and press conferences, but collapses when examined up close.

JD and Usha Vance Expecting Fourth Child
The RJC wishes a hearty "b'sha'a tova"* to Vice President JD Vance and Usha Vance, who announced this week that they are expecting their fourth child.

The History Calendar posted on X.com that the last US Vice President to have a child in office was Schuyler Colfax and his wife Ellen, in 1870. Colfax was a Republican who served as Speaker of the House (1863-1869) and later as Vice President to Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1873).

*"B'sha'a tova" is Hebrew for "at a good time", a traditional phrase used to wish parents-to-be the safe and healthy arrival of their child.

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