Media center
Highlights from Sebastian Kurz's Keynote Speech on EU-Israel Relations and Jewish Life in Europe
Analysis
Europe Can’t Fight Antisemitism While Ignoring Threats to Israel
The EU regularly expresses its commitment to Israel’s security. But when it comes to the deadly threats the Jewish state faces, more often than not Europe is missing in action. In this POLITICO Europe opinion piece, AJC CEO David Harris raises questions about Europe's mixed messaging towards Jerusalem, its misguided policy on Iran and Hezbollah, the memory of the Holocaust, and the global fight against antisemitism.
Let the Game-Changing Begin
The U.S.-brokered peace agreement between Israel and Morocco goes all the way to the civilizational level. AJC Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer Jason Isaacson explains in The Times of Israel how this year’s fourth diplomatic breakthrough for Israel in the Arab world is unique. This historic revival of the millennia-old ties between Morocco and the Jewish people are an example for others in the region to follow: “The season of game changing may be just beginning.”
The Underappreciated Abraham Accords
This year’s historic Abraham Accords inked between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain weren't everywhere met with the enthusiasm they deserve. Benedetta Buttiglione, the AJC Transatlantic Institute’s EU Policy Advisor, dissects in La Voce Repubblicana the flawed assumptions underpinning conventional thinking about the Middle East. A growing number of Arab nations are seeing the benefits of partnering with Israel and no longer allow their own interests to be held hostage by Palestinian intransigence.
Europe, Do Better At The UN
The UN General Assembly is poised to pass a total of 17 resolutions targeting Israel while omitting Palestinian terror and attempting to erase the millennia-old Jewish ties to Jerusalem. In comparison, the world’s worst human rights abusers like Iran will get a slap on the wrist. Writing in New Europe, the AJC Transatlantic Institute’s Deputy Director Michael Sieveking calls on the EU – currently under Germany’s presidency – to oppose this diplomatic assault on the Jewish state.
Europe Must Fight Political Islam
Islamist radicalism and violent extremism are on the rise in Western societies, as the deadly attacks recently in Vienna and the beheading of a French teacher chillingly reminded us. Writing in Europe’s best-selling newspaper BILD, AJC Europe Director Simone Rodan-Benzaquen and AJC Berlin Director Remko Leemhuis urge governments to cut ties with Islamist groups propagating anti-Western ideologies, like those linked to Iran’s regime or the Muslim Brotherhood: “We must set our sights on the organizations of political Islam, which are not violent themselves but create the climate for such murders.”
Briefing: Hezbollah in Europe
AJC and the Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) have produced an exhaustive, fact-based analysis that makes the case for the full designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. This brochure titled Hezbollah in Europe offers a more specific focus on our continent. It will...
Europe Can’t Fight Antisemitism Without Defining it
Antisemitism can only be overcome if it is correctly identified in all its forms. Writing in The Times of Israel, AJC’s Rabbi Andrew Baker and Holly Huffnagle call on governments worldwide to adopt and implement the Working Definition of Antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The definition, which recognizes anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism and was endorsed by the EU Council in 2018, is a critical tool to train law enforcement, judges, and educators and should serve as guideline for social media platforms to effectively fight anti-Jewish hate speech online.
Iran Is More Aggressive Than Ever Before
On 18 October the international arms embargo on Iran expired. The regime can now legally purchase upgraded and advanced weaponry. “This is bad news for the Middle East and sets the conditions for even more bloodshed,” writes AJC Berlin Director Remko Leemhuis in Switzerland’s biggest newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Germany, one of the JCPOA’s signatories, must live up to its special responsibility to help end Tehran’s quest for nuclear arms, its aggression in the region, and its support for terror proxies such as Hezbollah.
AJC to Open Office in Abu Dhabi
AJC unveiled its plans to open an office in Abu Dhabi after the historic announcement of the U.S.-brokered peace between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. For over 25 years AJC has engaged with the Gulf by advancing understanding and fostering cooperation between Arab states and the Jewish people. As reported in The Times of Israel, UAE’s envoy to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, hailed AJC’s “longstanding dialogue and engagement with the UAE” which “has played a productive role over many years.”
The Road to Arab-Israel Peace No Longer Runs Through Ramallah
This month’s historic White House signing ceremony for peace agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain showed how conventional wisdom about the Middle East is crumbling before our eyes and a new regional peace doctrine is unfolding. AJC Managing Director of Global Communications Avi Mayer argues in Newsweek that the Abraham Accords are a “wake-up call to Palestinians who have long been led to believe that Arab leaders will sacrifice their own national interests on the altar of Palestinian rejectionism.”