David Schenker, who spent 19 months as an assistant secretary of state in the Trump administration, said in a recent interview that he is “very happy to be sleeping at night again.” “I didn’t sleep well — it was really a lot of responsibility and I was incredibly concerned with the well-being and safety of…
The United States government no longer considers Israeli settlements inconsistent with international law, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday. The announcement, which was greeted with support from both Israeli government and opposition figures but harshly criticized by Arab leaders, is the latest example of the Trump administration shifting longstanding policies in ways that…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — U.S. diplomats in Dublin and Berlin pressed lawmakers and officials in Ireland and Germany to oppose bids to boycott Israel or the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. A State Department report delivered last week to Congress and obtained Monday by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency lists actions taken by U.S. diplomats to…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The State Department’s removal of the word “Palestinians” from a web page listing countries and areas covered by its Bureau for Near East Affairs does not reflect a change in policy, a spokeswoman said. “The website is being updated,” the spokeswoman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an email. “There has been…
The State Department has put on leave an official who has reportedly been a local leader in the white supremacist movement over the last several years, Politico reported Thursday. Matthew Q. Gebert, who was hired in 2013 and works as a foreign affairs officer in the department’s Bureau of Energy Resources in Washington, hosted white…
A State Department official has been leading a secret online life as a white nationalist leader and writer, the Southern Poverty Law Center claimed in an investigation. Matthew Q. Gebert works as a foreign affairs officer in the department’s Bureau of Energy Resources in Washington. But over the past few years, according to the SPLC,…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump administration ended the policy of referring to the West Bank and the Golan Heights as “occupied” by Israel. The State Department’s annual report on global human rights issues, issued Wednesday, drops the “occupied” language from passages on the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza. It refers to the Golan Heights…
WASHINGTON (JTA) — More than a thousand lay and clergy leaders across a range of faiths signed a petition urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to name an anti-Semitism monitor. “Around the world, violent and even lethal attacks have been made on Jews and Jewish institutions; physical harassment of Jews who wear a kippah in…
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