Putin meets Abbas in Moscow, pledges to secure Palestinian interests in Board of Peace
(JNS) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Jan. 21 during a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Kremlin that he will accept President Donald Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace (BoP) and meet the $1 billion requirement.
Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Gaza conflict calls for the establishment of a transitional administration to govern the Gaza Strip, of which the Board of Peace is to be a critical part.
A $1 billion fee is required for member countries to secure a permanent seat. Russia said it would pay using frozen assets in the United States, which would require U.S. action to unblock.
Putin made clear he was joining the BoP to secure Palestinian interests and will pay the $1 billion “first and foremost to support the Palestinian people and to direct those funds to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and, in general, to resolve Palestinian problems,” according to TASS, Russia’s state-owned news agency.
Trump launched his Board of Peace at a ceremony on Jan. 22 on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The board, which will initially focus on solidifying the ceasefire with Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, “can do pretty much whatever we want to do” once it is “completely formed,” said Trump.
IAEA chief warns Iran standoff over enriched uranium cannot go on indefinitely
(JNS) — Iran’s failure to fully account for its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and provide access to nuclear sites bombed by the United States and Israel in June cannot continue forever, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said on Jan. 20.
The IAEA, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, serves as the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.
Speaking to Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Grossi said the IAEA has inspected all 13 of Iran’s declared nuclear facilities that were not struck, but has been unable to access three key sites bombed in June.
Grossi said Iran must submit a report detailing what happened at those sites and to nuclear material stored there, including an estimated 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60% purity, close to weapons-grade levels. According to IAEA benchmarks, that quantity could be further enriched to produce enough material for up to 10 nuclear bombs.
“This cannot go on forever because at some point I will have to say, ‘I don’t have any idea where this material is,’” Grossi said, adding that while he has not reached that conclusion yet, Iran must engage with the agency.
Iran maintains it is fully cooperating with the IAEA and could not immediately be reached for comment, Reuters reported.
It has been at least seven months since the IAEA last verified Iran’s stock of highly enriched uranium, despite agency guidelines calling for monthly verification.
Mourner’s Kaddish for Bondi Beach victims recited in Australian parliament as tougher hate crime laws pass
(JTA) — A Jewish member of Australian Parliament recited the Mourner’s Kaddish in an address Jan. 19 to honor the victims of the Hanukkah massacre on Bondi Beach.
The address, delivered by Jewish parliamentarian and former attorney general Mark Dreyfus, came over a month after two gunmen motivated by what authorities said was “Islamic State ideology” opened fire on a celebration in Sydney. Most of the victims were Jewish, and Dreyfus read all of their names aloud.
Dreyfus, who wore a kippah for the presentation, then commended the “acts of extraordinary courage” by bystanders and emergency workers during the attack, naming Ahmed al-Ahmed, the Muslim man who received widespread support from the Jewish community after he was shot while disarming one of the attackers. He also told the Australian House of Representatives that the country’s “response cannot be confined to grief,” exhorting his fellow lawmakers to take action around “upholding our laws against hate.”
Then he invited everyone present to rise for the Mourner’s Kaddish, recited in Jewish communities in memory of the dead.
“You don’t have to be Jewish to feel this in your chest, an attack like this hurts all of us,” Dreyfus said, describing the prayer as “a prayer about life, dignity and the hope for peace at times of profound loss.”
Trump: Hamas ‘will be blown away very quickly’ if it won’t disarm
(JNS) — President Donald Trump warned in Davos on Jan. 21 that Hamas “will be blown away very quickly” if it fails to disarm under the second phase of his Gaza peace plan.
Speaking at a question-and-answer session with former Norwegian foreign minister Børge Brende following his special address to the World Economic Forum, Trump said Hamas had “agreed to give up their weapons” as part of his 20-point Gaza initiative, which has entered a second phase focused on demilitarization and technocratic governance.
“They were born with a weapon in their hands. When they were born, they were born with a rifle in their hand. It’s not an easy thing for them, but that’s what they agreed to,” he said.
Trump said it would become clear “over the next two or three days, certainly over the next three weeks” whether the terrorist group would follow through on disarmament, calling it a condition for Gaza’s reconstruction and the deployment of an international stabilization force under a Trump-chaired Board of Peace.
“If they don’t do it, they’ll be blown away very quickly. They’ll be blown away,” he said, reiterating his assertion that dozens of countries back the deal and “want to come in and take out Hamas” if the terrorist group reneges.
British Jews could be offered asylum in the US, Trump’s UK-born Jewish lawyer says
(JTA) — The Trump administration might be considering granting asylum to British Jews, according to Trump’s personal lawyer, who said “the UK is no longer a safe place for Jews.”
Robert Garson, a Jewish attorney from Manchester, England, with rising influence in the Trump administration, said he proposed the move to the State Department in an interview with The Telegraph.
Garson said his proposal was well received despite the Trump administration’s general anti-immigration stance.
“I thought: Jews are being persecuted in the United Kingdom,” Garson said. “They fit a wonderful demographic for the United States. They are, on the whole, educated. They speak English natively. They’ve got businesses. They’re exactly the sort of immigrant the United States should want to attract.”
Garson said his views on the future of Jews in Britain hardened after the terror attack on a synagogue in his hometown last year.
In October, the White House announced that it would restrict the number of refugees admitted to the United States to 7,500 in 2026, mostly reserving those spots for white South Africans. The number represents a steep drop from former President Joe Biden’s ceiling of 125,000 in 2024.
The administration’s privileging of white South Africans has been widely criticized in South Africa, including by Jews. The country’s chief rabbi Warren Goldstein, otherwise a vocal Trump supporter, called the move a “mistake.”
