By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
NATIONAL
The Defense Department’s probe into Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) for making a video with five other members of Congress reminding military and intelligence employees that it’s their duty to refuse illegal orders drew a rebuke from Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York). He said President Trump was “attempting to use the Pentagon as his personal attack dog.”
The Defense Department has threatened to reactivate Kelly, a former astronaut who is a retired Navy Captain, and take him before a court-martial proceeding. Elliot Cohen, a military historian, told The New York Times, “I have no idea what they’d court-martial him for. It’s preposterous.”
In another move against Trump’s political foes, The Defense Department urged the House to investigate whether Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Virginia) improperly worked for the Ukrainian government before he was elected to Congress. Vindman’s twin brother, Alexander Vindman, who served on the National Security Council during Trump’s first term in office, testified during the House’s impeachment of Trump in 2019 that Trump, while President, had urged Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate the ties between rival candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and Burisma, an international holding company of a number of Ukrainian oil and gas companies.
On Monday, the FBI requested interviews with the six Democrats appearing in the video.
One of them, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, commented that on Monday night “the counterterrorism division of the FBI sent a note to the members of Congress, saying they are opening what appears to be an inquiry against us … Whether you agree with the video or don’t agree with the video, the question to me is: is this the appropriate response for a president of the United States to go after and seek to weaponize the federal government against those he disagrees with?”
Besides Kelly and Slotkin, participants in the video were House Democrats Chris DeLuzio and Chrissy Houlahan, both of Pennsylvania, Jason Crow of Colorado and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire. All six are veterans of the American military or intelligence services.
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Naomi Steinberg, HIAS vice president of U.S. policy and advocacy, said the Trump administration’s plan to review the status of all refugees admitted during the Biden administration “is a new low in the administration’s consistently cold-hearted treatment of people who are already building new lives and enriching the communities where they have made their homes.”
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ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt welcomed Tuesday’s announcement by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce that it will launch a nationwide investigation into antisemitism at K-12 schools. He said: “We applaud this effort to hold educational institutions accountable and shine a light on the policies, practices and actions that allow antisemitic conduct to persist in school environments – and hope it further illuminates how these issues affect school districts across the country.”
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Since the enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, there have been these development in the probes into convicted sex traffickers Jeffrey Epstein, since deceased, and his companion Ghislaine Maxwell:
–House Oversight Committee James Comer (R-Ky) has rejected a suggestion from Bill and Hillary Clinton’s attorney David Kendall that the former U.S. President and Secretary of State answer in writing the committee’s questions about their relationships with Epstein. He insisted that Bill and Hillary testify in person to the committee respectively on Dec. 17 and Dec. 18. Comer threatened contempt proceedings if the Clintons fail to comply.
–The Justice Department on Monday renewed its request for the unsealing of grand jury transcripts concerning the culpability of Epstein and Maxwell. Federal judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer had previously ruled that the transcripts should remain sealed.
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ESPN sports commentator Paul Finebaum, 70, is mulling a bid to run as a Republican to succeed Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) now that former Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl has taken himself out of the race, Jewish Insider reports.
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The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has a story on New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s apology to Park East Synagogue for the police failing to guarantee access and egress Nov. 19 for attendees of a Nefesh b’Nefesh (soul to soul) presentation on making Aliyah (immigrating) to Israel that drew chanting protesters.
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INTERNATIONAL
U.S. President Donald Trump, encouraged by reports from Secretary of State Marco Rubio about prospects for a Russian-Ukrainian peace deal, on Tuesday announced that he will send Special Envoy Steve Witcoff to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with the Ukrainians. Trump added that he hopes to meet with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s President Putin after a deal is finalized. Rubio had over the weekend headed an American delegation that met with a Ukrainian one in Geneva.
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Carol Ann Schwartz, national president of Hadassah, said “the rise of conflict-related sexual violence is a crisis of global proportions.” She called upon the United Nations “to ensure that justice and accountability are not optional. Leaders around the world must take urgent action to ensure that terrorists and bad actors like Hamas are no longer emboldened to weaponize rape.”
Meredith Jacobs of Jewish Women International said that “when the UN holds perpetrators accountable, it sends a message that women’s lives matter. When the UN fails to act, it tells survivors their suffering can be ignored.”
Judy Rabhan, executive vice president of the National Council of Jewish Women stated: “NCJW has been calling out Hamas’ weaponization of sexual violence since October 7 (2023). The UN’s recognition of these crimes was long overdue, but recognition without accountability is hollow. We urge the international community to ensure that survivors and their families receive the support and justice they deserve, both in Israel and in every conflict zone where gender-based violence is used as a weapon of war.”
The three women were among others responding to the inclusion of Hamas in the UN’s 2024 Report of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.
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Jewish News Syndicate reports that Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid told a meeting of his Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party that Iran’s program to build up its ballistic missile capacity is “threatening the entire region, and therefore, it’s an American problem, a Saudi problem, an Emirati problem, and Israeli problem.”
Benny Gantz, head of the National Unity party, said Israel “knows how to deal with it, and whether we do it defensively or whether we do it offensively, Israel will stay a safe place to live in.” The same might not be true for Iran, he warned.
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Jonathan Spyer of the Jerusalem Post quotes Col. Nadav Shoshani of the IDF that “Hamas is not disarming. It is rebuilding its control.”
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Ejewishphilanthropy reports the Canadian government has stripped three Jewish organizations of their tax-exempt status: The Canadian Foundation for Masorti Judaism, Mazel Charity Fund and Herut Canada Charitable Foundation. They join the Jewish National Fund of Canada and the Ne’eman Foundation in having their tax status stripped.
Rabbi Sean Gorman of the Canadian Foundation for Masori Judaism stopped short of calling the trend antisemitic. “When coincidence becomes trend, there should be a more organized response. I’m not in the camp of ‘Something’s fishy here.’ Not at all. But I very much understand the concerns of those who are in that camp, right?
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STATE AND LOCAL
San Diego City Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera, voting Monday in a 3-1 majority on the Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee, said he is excited by a land use plan that calls for measures around San Diego State University that would triple the area’s population in the next 30 years.
“I’m excited to see how outside this plan update, we can work to make those recommendations a reality for the community,” The San Diego Union-Tribune reported him saying. His aide Jefferey Nguyen was quoted by Times of San Diego as saying “It’s really important to [Elo-Rivera] that recreation is provided in all his neighborhoods. And College Area is one of the communities that is lacking, sorely lacking on park space. And with this plan, my hope is that it could be a rallying point for our office and the community together to push for that need.”
But first the proposed plan must be debated in the full City Council amid opposition and support from various community groups.
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After two failed attempts to conduct unscheduled inspections of the ICE detention facility in the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Building in downtown San Diego, four Democratic members of Congress – San Diego County’s Sara Jacobs, Mike Levin, Scott Peters, and Juan Vargas — were admitted to the basement facility on Monday. They found three inmates in very clean facilities and inspected eight holding cells, equipped with metal benches and screened-off toilets. At a press conference, the Congress members questioned whether the detention facility had been cleaned up between their second attempt to visit and on Monday, when the inspection tour was permitted.
ICE issued an unsigned press release after the visit saying “These congressional Democrats have abused their access to ICE facilities by subsequently lying to the public about the conditions they observed, and even the criminal histories of those they spoke with, which include a criminal alien arrested for felony kidnapping and battery. These members continue to show they care little about actual oversight and more about a publicity stunt. …
“Luckily, ICE is committed to facts, unlike grandstanding politicians. ICE’s focus is public safety and these congressmembers should be thanking ICE for protecting their constituents.”
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World