American Jewish leader: Community pleased with US-Israel policy alignment under Trump
Conference of Presidents CEO William Daroff notes some leaders unhappy with Gaza plan, but glad of close ties; says Israeli-Saudi normalization would be fitting response to Hamas attack
Zev Stub is the Times of Israel's Diaspora Affairs correspondent.
Many American Jewish leaders were troubled by US President Donald Trump’s proposal last week that the US should take over Gaza. At the same time, organizational heads are pleased to see a strong alignment between Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, widely considered to represent mainstream US Jewry.
“There certainly are a number of American leaders who are not pleased by specific policy proposals that came forth in the meeting [between Trump and Netanyahu in Washington last week], particularly the Gaza proposal,” Daroff told The Times of Israel in an interview in Jerusalem on Sunday, ahead of the Conference of Presidents’ gathering of 75 leaders of Jewish organizations set for next week.
“But at the moment, Netanyahu and Trump seem aligned in a way that is indicative of the close bond in the relationship between America and Israel, and that is something that every leader in the American Jewish community supports.”
At a press conference with Netanyahu in Washington last week, Trump said that the US would “take over” Gaza and relocate its residents, so the Strip can be razed to the ground and turned into a “riviera of the Middle East.” While
Netanyahu and other right-wing Israeli leaders have praised the proposal, it has been widely condemned and rejected in the region and beyond.
Overall, “it was a very positive week where the closeness between our two countries was more evident than ever,” Daroff said of Netanyahu’s six-day visit to Washington. “Trump’s Middle East team is comprised of people the US Jewish community knows and likes. Executive actions that were taken, relating to [sanctioning] the International Criminal Court and [investigating] antisemitism on university campuses, are all in sync with policy agenda items supported by many in the Jewish community.”
Daroff noted it is evident from Trump’s first three weeks in office that he understands how Washington works better than he did during his first term, and that he has learned to operate more effectively.
The completion of a potential normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia would represent a “total victory” over the chaos that Hamas tried to sow on October 7, 2023, Daroff added.
“That attack was clearly timed to disrupt progress in negotiations between America, Israel and the Saudis,” Daroff said. “The fact that nearly 500 days into the war, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco have not recalled their ambassadors or disrupted their relations with Israel is a testament to the strength of the relationships.”
During his US visit, Netanyahu did not meet with American Jewish leaders as he usually does during trips to Washington, filling his schedule instead with meetings with top figures in the Trump administration, congressional leaders and Christian evangelical leaders.
While some Jewish leaders took offense or suggested that it reflected strained relations between Israel and the Diaspora, Daroff downplayed the decision.
“I know he had a very busy schedule on this visit,” Daroff said. “We met with the prime minister on his last several trips to Washington and New York, and have had productive meetings. The Conference of Presidents is set to meet with Netanyahu next week in Jerusalem, and I’m sure we will have a vibrant discourse with him then.”
Changing tides
American Jewry has been undergoing significant shifts in the 16 months since Hamas’s invasion and slaughter in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Rising antisemitism throughout the US has led many Jewish organizations to circle their wagons, Daroff said.
“Since October 7, we have seen antisemitism coming out of the sewers, and we have seen it across the world. In America, the activity on college campuses, in school board meetings, the pro-jihad, pro-Hamas demonstrations, has been startling. And it’s been a wake-up call,” Daroff said.
“On October 7, we all felt a punch in the gut as Israel was attacked, and then we had a second punch in the gut when we saw that neighbors, friends, and people we thought were our allies in America weren’t standing with us. We were all surprised by the response on many college campuses and across society, including women’s organizations that minimized and denied crimes against women,” Daroff said.
“While there are certainly many who still do stand with us, I think that that brought about a realization that it’s important to build our relationships and connections with our fellow Jews. It may not be politically correct to say it, but I think we are seeing a circling of the wagons where people are coming home to Judaism.”
American Jewry has seen a resurgence since October 7, with more engagement and greater synagogue attendance, in addition to raising “well over a billion dollars” for Israel’s post-October 7 needs, Daroff noted.
Asked whether American Jewry is in a state of crisis, Daroff quoted his predecessor at the Conference of Presidents: “Malcolm Hoenlein says that the Jews are always in one of three conditions: about to be in a crisis, in a crisis, or coming out of a crisis.”
American Jewry is in one of those phases, Daroff said, but has lived through worse. “It depends on how you define crisis.”
Political pressure
One of the top priorities for the Conference of Presidents currently is the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would require the Department of Education to honor the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, Daroff said.
He said members have been lobbying heavily in favor of the act, and more than half of US states have adopted the IHRA definition — considered the “gold standard” for identifying antisemitism — accepted by hundreds of countries, universities, and other entities.
Daroff is optimistic that the bill, which recently fizzled out after the Senate failed to vote on it last year, will be passed after it was reintroduced in the House of Representatives last week.
While some have charged that the definition shields Israel from legitimate criticism by linking antisemitism and anti-Zionism, Daroff called the connection between the two “a key lever” in promoting hatred.
“When you have someone throwing a Molotov cocktail through the window of a synagogue in Montreal to protest the actions of an army 6,000 miles away, it clearly shows that connection,” Daroff said.
The Conference of Presidents has made universal adoption of the IHRA definition a priority and has been working closely with governors and legislators to enact it in every state, Daroff said.
Meanwhile, pressure on colleges to protect their Jewish students has started to bear fruit.
“This year has been calmer on campuses,” Daroff said. “We are encouraging administrators to abide by their codes of conduct and suspend or expel students who violate their rules. We ask them to take a proactive role in stating that there should be no antisemitism on campus, and to ensure that there are mechanisms in place for Jewish students to report violations and file complaints.”
Daroff remains hopeful for a postwar resurgence of Jewish life in the United States and around the world.
“One thing we’ve learned during this period is that when a 7-year-old kid is attacked in Rome, we feel it in America, and when a 17-year-old in Brooklyn is assaulted, you feel it in Jerusalem,” he said. In better times, too, he said, “that connectivity is something we should try to sustain.”
