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This Week:

• El-Sayed Pushing Jewish Dems to the GOP
• Trump and Netanyahu Address UN
• Trump Triumphs with Greenland Deal

• Dems Block Arms Sale to Israel

• Short Takes
• Week's Best Tweets
• Upcoming Events

El-Sayed Pushing Jewish Dems to the GOP

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Michigan Senate candidate who has called Israel's actions in Gaza a "genocide," has attempted to address concerns from Jewish voters. It doesn't seem to be working.

Fox News notes that some prominent Jewish Democrats are throwing their support behind Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers. The state's GOP chair, Jim Runestad, said that he expects significant Jewish defections from the Democratic Party on Election Day.

There's evidence for this from Olivia Reingold at The Free Press. Congregants at Michigan's Temple Israel, the site of an antisemitic terrorist attack last March, are saying publicly that they cannot vote for El-Sayed. It comes down to safety:

Elise Otis and Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed agree on just about everything, she said—from abortion rights to DEI to taxing the rich. There's just one thing standing in the way of her casting a ballot for him: what Otis alleges is "his hatred of Jews."

"Everything else I 1,000 percent agree with," said Otis, a 55-year-old Jew and lifelong Democrat. "But I can't support someone I don't think will keep my family safe."

El-Sayed's response to the attack on the synagogue was "Hurt people, hurt people," referencing that the gunman lost family members in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon. But El-Sayed failed to mention that one of the attacker's relatives was a member of Hezbollah.

The Free Pressreport continues:

What is happening at Temple Israel may reflect a broader shift among some Jewish voters in the state… among those Jewish Democrats, the same poll found that 35 percent said that the rise of anti-Israel candidates on the left had made it harder for them to identify as Democrats.

Trump and Netanyahu Address UN

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both addressed the UN General Assembly in New York this week. Their bold speeches are worth your time.

Video of President Trump's speech and the transcript of his remarks

Video of Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech and the transcript of his remarks.

Trump Triumphs with Greenland Deal

President Donald Trump concluded an agreement with the governments of Denmark and Greenland on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week.

Greenland is located between the US, Russia, and Europe in the Arctic, where Chinese and Russian activities are potential threats to US interests. This agreement enhances US national security and the security of our European allies.

The new agreement reaffirms the sovereignty of Greenland, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and provides for the following: a long-term and expanded US military presence in Greenland; American veto power over any non-NATO military presence in Greenland; free US access and movement across and around Greenland by land, sea, and air; limits to foreign direct investment and other activities that could compromise the security of US sectors and activities.

Dems Block Arms Sale to Israel

Senate Democrats are taking actions that could harm Israeli security and the US-Israel relationship.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has placed a procedural hold on President Donald Trump's planned $2.8 billion sale of bombs to Israel.

Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, made a similar announcement last week.

Shaheen has blocked the sale since July and continues to withhold consent for moving the sale forward.

Semafor explains the technicalities here: 

The State Department generally would not formally transmit the arms sale if a ranking member of either the House or Senate committees of jurisdiction places a hold — but there is no binding restriction from advancing the sale anyway, according to information from a recent Congressional Research Service report.

Indeed, the Trump administration bypassed the congressional review process to sell more than 35,500 of the bombs to Israel last year.

Congress can also hold formal roll-call votes on blocking arms sales.

Short Takes

Shem Tov: Hostages Like Me Were Also 'NAZA'—Collateral Damage(gift link)

Hamas kidnapped me from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7 and held me in Gaza for 505 days, much of that time in apartments in active combat zones. There was much to fear in captivity. Hunger. My captors. Never seeing my family again. But I also feared the Israeli air force. The Israeli pilots overhead had no idea where I was. Sometimes when my captors expected an Israeli attack was coming, they fled and left me behind. If an Israeli bomb killed me, Hamas would win twice: I would be dead, and Israel would be responsible.

One of my captors told me his mother had received a phone call warning her to leave her home because an Israeli strike might put her in danger. The call came from the Israel Defense Forces. Hamas knew where I was and left me to die. Israel didn't know my location, but it knew where my captor's mother was and called to make sure she wasn't killed accidentally. There I was—kidnapped, starved and tortured by her son—while my army was trying to keep his mother alive.

Jewish Insider: Cruz warns Christian leaders are 'asleep' on antisemitism among youth

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) accepted a leadership award at the American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) annual Lamplighter Awards event in Washington, DC this week.

…Cruz was honored at the Chabad gala alongside Jeff Miller, a leading Republican lobbyist and the board chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

Miller, who also serves on the Republican Jewish Coalition's board, called for "a new strategy for a new kind of threat" facing the Jewish people while describing how antisemitism has surged in the digital age.

…"This is not a partisan fight, nor should it ever become one. We may disagree about politics, but tonight, in this room and in this fight, we must be one," Miller said. "Whether antisemitism comes from Hasan Piker or Tucker Carlson, we must call it for what it is.

…"We do not need less commitment; we need greater coordination. We do not need fewer voices, we need those voices speaking together," he continued. "Antisemitism does not care which organization gets the credit. Neither can we. We need one strategy. One coalition. One united front."

The Hill: Trump officially makes Rubio national security adviser

President Donald Trump has signed a commission permanently making Secretary of State Marco Rubio the national security adviser, according to a White House official.

Rubio is the first person to hold both roles at the same time since Henry Kissinger.

Jerusalem Post: Israel, Morocco agree to upgrade diplomatic ties

Israel, Morocco and the US held a trilateral diplomatic summit in New York on Wednesday, agreeing to advance the Abraham Accords.

The meeting of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, and US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz comes a day after the sixth anniversary of the Abraham Accords.

The three countries reaffirmed their commitment to steps including upgrading diplomatic relations between Israel and Morocco, raising the status of their respective diplomatic missions to embassies and appointing ambassadors.

JNS: Neria Leiter, son of Israel's ambassador to US, remains in 'very serious condition' after terror attack

Neria Leiter, the son of Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, remains in very serious condition after being injured in a Palestinian terror attack on Wednesday, Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center said on Thursday morning.

… The Israel Defense Forces reserve soldier was wounded on Wednesday evening in a car-ramming attack at the Maccabim checkpoint on Route 443, near Modi'in.

The ambassador said on Wednesday that his son needed "a miracle."

"I believe in the power of prayer, and I believe that when the people of Israel unite, miracles happen," Leiter wrote on X.

…The ambassador's oldest son, Maj. Moshe Leiter, was killed in Gaza in 2023. The Israeli representative noted that Neria continued to serve in uniform after his brother's death.

"Since Oct. 7, he has served hundreds of days in the reserves on multiple fronts," the ambassador said, of Neria.

"Palestinian terrorism seeks to uproot the people of Israel from their land," he stated. "They choose death. We choose life."

Please keep Neria Dov ben (son of) Chana in your prayers.

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