Conference of Presidents to hold 51st leadership mission in Jerusalem
(JNS) — Seventy prominent American Jewish leaders will gather in Jerusalem on Feb. 15–19 for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations’ 51st Annual National Leadership Mission.
The conference comes amid ongoing regional tensions in the Middle East and a sharp rise in antisemitism in the United States and worldwide.
Led by Chair Betsy Berns Korn and CEO William C. Daroff, the delegation represents the Conference’s 50 member organizations. Participants will meet with senior Israeli political, military and civic leaders to discuss Israel’s current challenges and priorities.
Scheduled speakers include Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, opposition leader Yair Lapid and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. The group will also receive briefings from top Israel Defense Forces officials and engage with leading academics and policy experts, including specialists on Iran and regional security.
Sessions will address issues such as Iran’s strategic posture, resilience in northern Israel, and the social and economic concerns affecting diverse communities, including Arab and Druze citizens. Delegates will also meet Israeli business and cybersecurity leaders.
For nearly seven decades, the Conference of Presidents has served as a central voice of organized American Jewry, strengthening U.S.-Israel relations, combating antisemitism, opposing efforts to isolate Israel, and advocating for Israel’s security and regional peace.
International social workers group set to vote on expelling Israeli union for ‘not acting to promote peace’
(JTA) — The Israeli Union of Social Workers could be booted from a global federation after at least three countries called for a vote on its expulsion on allegations of ethical breaches.
The countries — Ireland, Spain and Greece — charged that the Israeli union should have moved to seek exemptions from military service for its members or “issue a call for peace.” Their call for an expulsion vote escalated the International Federation of Social Workers’ January 2025 censure of the Israeli union over the alleged breaches, which the federation said violated ethics rules that say social workers “should not use weapons in their professional or personal capacities against people.”
The Israeli union has called for the vote to be abandoned while signaling that it remains committed to dialogue with Palestinian colleagues.
“Expelling or suspending a social workers’ union will not promote change — rather, it will promote polarization and radicalization, which arise in situations of isolation or perceived threat,” it said in a statement issued on Feb. 9. “In our reality, this means that expulsion or suspension would hinder our ability to promote dialogue with our neighbors or with other countries. Those who oppose shared life between Israelis and Palestinians would welcome such an outcome. It would serve as an excuse to maintain extreme positions and continue fighting.”
In the statement, the Israeli union also said that the demand to request Israeli social workers be granted an exemption from military service was “entirely unimaginable within Israeli society.”
Israelis indicted on charges of gambling using classified information
(JNS) — A Israel Defense Forces reservist along with an Israeli civilian were indicted on Feb. 12 on charges of placing bets on the Polymarket gambling website based on classified military information, according to a joint statement released on Feb. 12 by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), Israel Police and Israeli Defense Ministry.
The prosecution filed indictments for serious security offenses, as well as bribery and obstruction of justice. Several additional IDF reservists were arrested in connection with the investigation.
Only parts of the affair were cleared for publication by the court, and the identities of those involved remain under a gag order.
The probe was conducted jointly by the ISA and the Arzim Central Unit — a joint unit of the Defense Ministry and the Israel Police — together with the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division (MPCID) and the IDF’s Information Security Department, accompanied by the Cyber Department of the State Attorney’s Office, according to the statement.
According to Israel’s Channel 13, the defendants allegedly placed bets on Polymarket that yielded hundreds of thousands of shekels in profit.
The betting website is a U.S. cryptocurrency-based prediction market launched in 2020 that allows people to place bets on a wide range of future events, such as sports matches, economic outcomes and geopolitical events, including, for example, the recent deposition of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Top German official visits Gaza for first time since 2010
(JNS) — The president of the Bundestag, Julia Klöckner, visited Israel and the Gaza Strip on Feb. 12 for the first time in her capacity as the head of the German parliament.
Klöckner entered an area of Gaza that is under Israeli military control, the dpa news agency reported, but the journalists accompanying her were not allowed to enter the Strip.
The visit, in which Israeli troops escorted the politician to the edge of the Israeli-held zone, was the first visit to the Gaza Strip by a top German official since 2010, and the first by a top E.U. official since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
At a press conference in Jerusalem, Klöckner criticized a Knesset bill that would allow Israeli civilian courts to sentence to death convicted terrorists, in addition to Nazi war criminals and traitors.
“The achievement of abolishing state executions should not be jeopardized,” Klöckner told reporters at a press conference in Jerusalem, according to the Handelsblatt newspaper. “The death penalty is incompatible with the protection of human dignity. A state must not seek revenge,” she said.
On Nov. 10, the bill passed a first reading in the Israeli parliament; it needs to pass two additional ones to become law.
Reaffirming her support for a two-state solution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Klöckner told reporters: “I believe we must also adhere to the goal of living in peaceful coexistence.”
She also advocated lifting restrictions on the introduction of supplies to Gaza. “Humanitarian aid is not a political concession, but a moral obligation,” Klöckner said.
After 3-hour White House meeting, Trump says he ‘insisted’ to Netanyahu that Iran talks should continue
(JTA) — Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Feb. 11 in an effort to push the U.S. leader to widen negotiation with Iran to include Israeli security priorities.
“Nothing definitive” came out of the highly anticipated meeting between the leaders, which lasted roughly three hours, Trump wrote in a post on social media immediately afterwards. But he signaled that he had resisted a push to end direct talks with Iran.
“There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated. If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference. If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be,” wrote Trump.
During the meeting, which was closed to the press, Netanyahu was expected to push Trump to widen negotiations with Iran beyond its nuclear program, including imposing restrictions on Iran’s ballistic missile program and ending Iranian support for Hamas and Hezbollah.
The talks Feb. 11 were also expected to center on developments in the ceasefire in Gaza, with Netanyahu officially joining the Board of Peace during a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier in the day.
