News and Analysis from AJC CEO David Harris

Russian President Vladimir Putin justified his current invasion of Ukraine by asserting the country needed to be denazified. It was a rather odd assertion, to say the least. Ukraine is led by a proud, democratically-elected Jew, Volodymyr Zelensky, chosen by nearly three-quarters of the voters in 2019. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Jews were enjoying a vibrant religious and communal life until the Russian assault, and the government had adopted one of the toughest measures anywhere against antisemitism.
Ironically, this was a perfect example of “the pot calling the kettle black.” Indeed, it was Putin’s regime drawing from the Nazi playbook, not Ukraine.

With the brazen Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is important to try to understand how this happened and how to respond. This act of war didn’t occur in a vacuum. Russian President Vladimir Putin had said as early as 2005 that the “collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.”

AJC CEO David Harris called out Russia’s brazen act of war against Ukraine and reiterated American Jewish Committee’s long standing commitment to an independent Ukraine.

There are as many as 300,000 Jews living in Ukraine today. Whatever happens in the weeks and months ahead, they know they don’t have to face the prospect of homelessness. And that’s because, thankfully, Israel is a reality.

AJC CEO David Harris, responding to a Wall Street Journal essay by Israeli historian Benny Morris, points out that the mission of UNRWA, set up in 1949, made no reference to refugee resettlement, and its definition of a Palestinian refugee included future generations without any time limit. Question is why Unrwa is not under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The fundamental problem with the Amnesty International report is that it is disconnected from reality. Israel has nothing to do with apartheid, and apartheid has nothing to do with Israel.

January 27 has been designated by the United Nations as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Holocaust defies imagination. Its aim was the Endlösung, or Final Solution, of the Jewish people. In pursuit of this goal, a new alphabet of genocide was created — from A for Auschwitz to Z for Zyklon-b, the nerve gas used in the gas chambers. Every Jew was a target, including 1.5 million children. The Jews were pursued for one reason— they were Jews and, according to Adolf Hitler’s demented worldview, all Jews had to be eliminated. Seventy-seven years after the war’s end, why should these events still matter?

American Jewish Committee David Harris remarks on the Ukraine crisis.

In his latest interview with Germany’s BILD, the most-read newspaper in Europe, AJC CEO David Harris discusses Germany-Iran ties, Germany-Israel relations, COVID-19 conspiracy theories, Holocaust relativization and other current issues.

Surveys reveal a disturbingly large number of American Jews who feel disconnected from their Jewish identity. How painfully sad! In response, let me share the essence of what being Jewish means to me.

As United Nations secretary-general, you said more than once you were a friend of Israel. But then I read your oped in the Financial Times on June 29th. Could this really be the same Ban Ki-moon writing such a one-sided assault on Israel, raising questions about whether you truly are a friend or, still worse, if you are even committed today to Israel’s very existence.

All Jews ignore at their peril rising antisemitism.

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has a Jewish problem. Despite her repeated denials and the rush to circle the wagons from some left-wing Jews, there's an undeniable pattern.

There’s an entire global industry dedicated to vilifying and isolating Israel, the world’s only Jewish-majority nation. It’s time to wake up and take careful notice. And it’s time, yes, to unleash the outrage and act. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

AJC CEO David Harris’ "Letter from a Forgotten Jew" revisits an often-forgotten history of Jewish refugees from the Arab world.

Seemingly overnight, anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and antisemitic incidents are being reported near and far. Many American Jews, who not so long ago thought these were threats faced by Jews elsewhere in the world but not here at home, are suddenly waking up to new realities.

Nicholas Kristof, the well-known New York Times columnist, wrote a piece this week entitled “Were My Criticisms of Israel Fair?” As he put it, he experienced “pushback from readers” who questioned his earlier thoughts on “the recent Gaza war.” This column was a response to those readers. I have considerable respect for Kristof, although I don’t always agree with his views on Israel. In this case, I thought his argument fell short in several important ways.

It was exactly 20 years ago. My wife and I were attending a Shabbat dinner in Madrid on June 1st when someone gave us the news. A suicide bomber had struck a seaside discotheque, the Dolphinarium, in Tel Aviv. There were reportedly many casualties. It seems there’s no more understanding or, worse, concern among many today about what Hamas actually is than there was that unforgettable Friday evening in 2001.

As Hamas fired deadly missiles at Israel for 11 straight days, Israel’s critics fired one verbal salvo after another. Unable or unwilling to distinguish between a terrorist organization, Hamas, seeking Israel’s destruction, and a democratic country trying to deny the group’s wish, they went for the jugular. Here are 15 of the most memorably outrageous accusations.

The most recent round of conflict between Hamas and Israel did not come out of nowhere. Rather, there is historical and contemporary context.

In the The New York Times (May 14), U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders wrote an essay entitled “The U.S. Must Support an Evenhanded Approach in the Middle East” (and, unusually, 24 hours later, retitled “The U.S. Must Stop Being an Apologist for the Netanyahu Government”). Whatever the title, the thrust of the senator’s comments remains exactly the same.

I just watched your 10-minute monologue on the Israeli-Hamas conflict for your popular television program “The Daily Show” (May 11). Frankly, it wasn’t easy viewing. In fact, I began talking back to the screen, but, obviously, to no avail, so I chose instead to write you this open letter.

Hamas has territorial ambitions on Israel. In fact, that's putting it mildly: It would like to replace Israel in its entirety with a Muslim Brotherhood-ruled, Sharia-based state. Israel has no territorial ambitions on Hamas-ruled Gaza. To the contrary, Israel left it totally in 2005 to govern itself, something previous rulers, including Egypt and Ottoman Turkey, never remotely did. Israel hoped never to return.

May 8th marks the 76th anniversary of the defeat of Germany and its unconditional surrender to the Allied forces. Fortunately, it came 988 years short of Hitler’s prediction of a thousand-year reign, but not soon enough for the tens of millions of victims of Nazism. As the child of two Holocaust survivors, one of whom spent childhood years in Berlin, the anniversary for me is a time for remembrance, reflection, and rededication.

President Biden’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide was a groundbreaking event, one that American Jewish Committee had been advocating for over many decades. AJC CEO David Harris explains in his latest oped in The Times of Israel why acknowledging what happened to the Armenian people in 1915 is important, why the Jewish people care so much about historical truth, especially regarding genocide, and why more countries around the world should join those who have called the mass murder of Armenians by its rightful name.

Four years after the murder in Paris of Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old French Jew, mother, and doctor, the case is back in the news in France. The French high court ruled this month that the perpetrator, Kobili Traoré, could not stand trial, even though no one contested that he had brutally beaten his victim and thrown her out a third-floor window, while declaring “Allahu akbar.”

Recent developments underscore the remarkable trajectory of ties between Greece and Israel.

Within a matter of days, two violent hate crimes targeting Asian Americans and Jews occurred in broad daylight on the streets of New York. If these were stand-alone incidents, they would be worrisome enough. But they are not. They are indicative of larger trends in America today, and their sources are multiple. Hate and division are on the rise, and two of the principal targets are Asian-Americans and Jewish Americans.

Modern Israel celebrates its 73rd birthday this week. Let me put my cards on the table. I’m not dispassionate when it comes to the country. It is an unparalleled tale of tenacity and determination, of courage and renewal.

Resuming contacts with Iran has become an early foreign policy priority for the Biden administration. American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO David Harris, a long-time observer of the Iran issue, offers six recommendations to the Biden Administration for any future negotiations with the Iranian regime.

Those who genuinely care about antisemitism must open their eyes wide and be swivel-headed – and not allow partisan political thinking to narrow the field of vision and sense of outrage.

I am not naive about the complex history of Polish-Jewish relations, or the accusations emanating from both sides. Yet I believe, as the son of parents who suffered at the hands of both Berlin and Moscow, that what we share in common far exceeds what divides us. And those commonalities are profoundly important in our contemporary world.

It seemed too good to be true. Finally, here was a story about Israel —the world leader in vaccinating its entire population, in all its rich diversity, against COVID — that the media might present in positive terms.

The recent spate of annual anti-Israel resolutions at the UN is a telling reminder that Israel is treated according to a totally different standard than all other countries in the international system. Of course, Israel deserves attention and scrutiny, as does every other nation. But it also merits equal treatment – nothing more, nothing less.

Whatever one’s view on the Trump era, his administration made notable headway in the Middle East, writes AJC CEO David Harris in his new Times of Israel blog.

Facilitating historic agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, taking a tougher approach regarding Iran and its malign behavior, moving the U.S. Embassy to its rightful place in Jerusalem, and messaging the Palestinians that time is not necessarily on their side if they continue to reject two-state deals, are significant developments that the incoming Biden administration should consider in thinking about the region as it is today.

I write as a friend, who has said more than once that the EU is the single most ambitious and successful peace project in modern history. But if the EU is serious about tackling antisemitism and preserving historical memory of the Holocaust, it cannot neglect, minimize or wish away threats to the existence of Israel, the world’s lone Jewish-majority country and home to nearly 7 million Jews.

The next four years will be informed by the pre-Trump era, but no, not entirely, as the world does not stand still. What is certain is that the rhetoric will change and Washington’s first instinct will be to seek European partners.

In his open, must-read letter to CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour, published by The Times of Israel, AJC CEO David Harris urges her to apologize for analogizing a deadly Holocaust-era tragedy, Kristallnacht, to the current Trump Administration. “You were weaponizing Kristallnacht, instrumentalizing the Holocaust to make your point,” writes Harris, the child of two Holocaust survivors, who asks Amanpour to “do the right thing, apologize for your comment, and issue a clarification.”

Die Welt, one of Germany’s most influential national newspapers, asked AJC CEO David Harris to write a piece about the latest deadly Islamist terror attacks in Paris, Nice, and Vienna. Harris assesses the challenges facing France and Austria, and other European countries, and offers ten policy recommendations for what governments should do to counter the jihadist threat and address integration challenges.

In the past decade, a number of pundits talked about Israel’s growing isolation under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. To the contrary, I have repeatedly said that Israel’s diplomatic position globally has been on the upswing.

Whatever one’s thoughts about politics today, America is not lurching towards Nazism or Bolshevism. To suggest otherwise is to misunderstand, at a fundamental level, the nature of these totalitarian ideologies and their legacies.

Europe has much to offer, most especially its remarkable experience of postwar peace-building and integration that today is the EU. It could perhaps one day serve as a model for other regions with a long history of conflict and animosity. But that won’t happen unless Europe sheds some of its archaic thinking about the Middle East, acknowledges and embraces the new dynamics at work as reflected in the UAE-Israel deal (and others to follow?), takes a fresh look at its own complex relationship with Israel, and ends its “low expectations” policy towards the Palestinians.

In the wake of the unprecedented tragedy of the Holocaust, it was anything but obvious that a Jewish group would seek to engage postwar Germany. But that’s exactly what American Jewish Committee (AJC), alone among global Jewish organizations, did.

Without an understanding of what happened in the past, it’s impossible to grasp where we are today — and where we are has profound relevance for the region and the world. Fifty-three years ago this week, the Six-Day War broke out.

In these times of profound uncertainty, triggered by the war against the pandemic, one comment keeps coming up in my world: “Where’s Winston Churchill now that we need him?”

As the world commemorates the Allied victory and recalls the war’s horrors, some are invoking the language of the Nazi era in response to COVID-19 restrictions. How appallingly inappropriate and insensitive!

It is a story that dates back centuries: A crisis occurs and conspiracy theories emerge to offer one-size-fits-all explanations. More often than not, Jews are implicated. So, too, has it been during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AJC CEO David Harris wrote a letter to the AJC community amid the unfolding public health crisis caused by the Coronavirus COVID-19.

On January 23, we stood together with united resolve in the face of history’s greatest horror, the Holocaust, at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp where more than 1 million Jews perished. Never Again. Not for Jews. Not for Muslims. Not for any of God’s children.

In the wake of the horrific knife attack on Saturday during a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey, N.Y., and following a recent spate of other anti-Semitic assaults in New York City and elsewhere in the United States, we must ask and answer two key questions: “Why now?” and “What can be done to stop such incidents?”

AJC CEO David Harris responds in a letter to the editor to New York Times editorial on President Trump's executive order on campus antisemitism.

We have the remarkable situation that the U.S., Canada, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, the Arab League, and the GCC, joined most recently by Argentina and the United Kingdom, all agree on the true nature of Hezbollah, yet the EU stands oddly apart.

As the world marks the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, when German forces invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, is the history still relevant? Does it have contemporary meaning? Or is it destined to fade away, as the wartime generation of soldiers, eyewitnesses, and survivors reaches the twilight of their lives?

David Harris, CEO of AJC, and Endy Zemenides, executive director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council, respond to a New York Times op-ed.

In the early and mid-1980s, I saw up close some of the remarkable Israeli efforts, supported by the United States government and a few American Jewish groups, on behalf of Ethiopian Jews.

Fifty-one years ago this week, the Six-Day War broke out. While some wars fade into obscurity, this one remains as relevant today as in 1967. Many of its core issues remain unresolved.

Reading Michelle Alexander’s column, “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine,” in The New York Times (Jan. 20) isn’t for the faint of heart. So many questions swirl around it that it’s hard to know where to begin.

AJC CEO David Harris responds to Michelle Goldberg column on antisemitism and anti-Zionism.

The new CNN survey of attitudes towards Jews in seven countries – Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland, and Sweden – raises profound concerns. Jews are an infinitesimal percentage of Europe’s population, but continue to play an outsized role in the European imagination.

AJC CEO David Harris writes about his mother, Nelly Harris, who passed away at age 95.

As we celebrate the first 20 years of the pioneering AJC Berlin office, we are fully cognizant that there remains much to be done. Fortunately, history has evolved and we are not alone. Our many German partners give us the confidence to believe that, whatever the difficulties, we will overcome them together.

In an op-ed published by The Hill, AJC CEO David Harris shows the importance of the transatlantic relationship.

News reports suggest the U.S. administration is considering a historic decision to redefine who is and is not a Palestinian “refugee.” I hope the reports are true. A change is long overdue and could actually help the search for peace long-term.

For my family, America meant, quite literally, rescue, salvation, and rebirth. Nothing less.

Europe has joined America as a migrant-receiving space, and as recent events have shown, immigration can be explosive unless properly handled. The American example, as well as my own family experience, offers some possible guidelines.

IOI is the misguided notion, peddled in the name of Israel's “best interests” by some in the diplomatic, academic, and media worlds, that if only Israel did this or that, peace with the Palestinians would be at hand.

Twenty years ago this week, my father passed away.

Try as I might, there are some things I just don’t get.
One of them is the failure by many – in political circles, the media, and even segments of the Jewish community – to understand Israel’s unenviable security situation on its border with Gaza.

This day will be remembered, above all, for another celebration – the transfer of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to its rightful place in Jerusalem. I am in Israel’s capital city to join in the festivities and express appreciation, on behalf of the nonpartisan American Jewish Committee (AJC), to the Trump administration for its bold decision.

Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary this month. Let me put my cards on the table — I’m not dispassionate when it comes to Israel.

The difference between Hamas and Israel couldn’t be greater, yet you wouldn’t know it when listening to some observers.

One day, I fear, what is currently happening in Polish-Israeli and Polish-Jewish relations will become a case study for universities and diplomatic academies around the world in how an outwardly strong partnership can unravel practically overnight.

For those of us, and I include the American Jewish Committee (AJC) centrally here, who have struggled to write a bright new chapter in Polish-Jewish relations, this is a key moment. We dare not lose the momentum gained in recent years.

You are on record as calling for your country to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state as soon as possible.

The recent focus on the Jerusalem issue is a telling reminder that Israel is treated according to a totally different standard than other countries in the international system.

In all the discussion about this decades-long conflict and the quest for a solution, some basic facts are too often missing, neglected, downplayed, or skewed.

On December 6, 1987, 30 years ago, more than 250,000 people gathered in Washington to call on the Kremlin to open the gates and let Soviet Jews emigrate.