By Donald H. Harrison in San Diego
INTERNATIONAL
A signing ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, inaugurating U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace was held Thursday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. Including the U.S., 20 countries attended the signing ceremony: Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Mongolia, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan.
One noticeable country that was unrepresented at the ceremony was Israel, despite the fact that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had accepted Trump’s invitation to join the Board, and Israel’s President Isaac Herzog was present in Davos. Israeli media reported that because Switzerland is a member nation of the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for his conduct of the Gaza War, he did not want to risk being arrested in Davos.
Also, there were no Western European countries at the signing ceremony, perhaps attributable to their support for Denmark’s resistance to turning Greenland over to the United States, or to perceptions that Trump meant for the Board of Peace to rival, and ultimately replace, the United Nations. Another factor may have been Trump’s invitation to Russia to join the Board.
The U.S. delegation featured Trump, who declared “We’re going to have peace in the world, and boy, wouldn’t that be a great legacy for all of us!”; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff; Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law; and Josh Gruenbaum, newly appointed as a special adviser to the Board of Peace.
Kushner in a speech to the assemblage said rebuilding Gaza would start at the southern end of Gaza by reopening the Rafah crossing from Egypt and move steadily to the northern end of the 35-mile long strip. Reconstruction would include tourism facilities along with a seaport and airport. He added that this process would be delayed in areas of Gaza where Hamas refused to give up their arms.
Witkoff, Kushner and Gruenbaum, following the Board of Peace meeting in Davos, flew to Moscow for a meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, announced a trilateral meeting among negotiators for Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. would be held in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday. It will be the first time negotiators from the two warring countries meet since the onset of hostilities. He met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum with President Trump.
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Ted Deutch, American Jewish Committee’s CEO, said in anticipation of the United Nations Human Rights Council special session on Iran on Friday, Jan. 23: “The situation in Iran matters far beyond its borders. A regime that systematically violates the rights of its own citizens, exports extremism, and fuels regional instability poses a direct challenge to the principles of human dignity, international law, and global security. Through its terror arm, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and support to proxies and surrogates ranging from Hezbollah and the Houthis to Hamas, Iran has for decades destabilized the region and targeted Jewish life specifically, whether by attacking Israel or Jewish communities around the world. Silence or inaction in the face of such abuses only emboldens further violence and impunity.”
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Eyal Ostrinsky, chairman of Kerem Kayemeth LeIsrael – Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) announced projects in areas of Israel that came under attack from Lebanon and Gaza. In Kiryat Shmona, next to Lebanon, KKL-JNF will purchase up to 120 subsidized and rent controlled apartments with the goal of attracting “mission driven communities” and attracting more than 100 young families through housing incentives. In the south, near Gaza, a similar program was approved for Ofakim. The Ramat HaNegev Regional Council was selected as a primary area for the organization’s assistance with an allocation of 15 million NIS. Ostrinsky commented: “We promised to move from words to actions, and we are delivering. The decision to purchase and lease hundreds of apartments for young couples in the heart of Kiryat Shmona and Ofakim is our definitive Zionist answer to the destruction and neglect. The significant investment in infrastructure development in Ramat HaNegev is a clear statement of values. KKL JNF doesn’t just plant trees, it builds communities. The decisions we have made constitute a clear declaration of intent: 2026 will be the year of revival and growth, and we will be there with the necessary resources to ensure the flourishing of the Galilee and the Negev.”
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Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum applauded Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney’s warning to “Middle Power” countries that “You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”
Sheinbaum told her daily news conference that Carney’s remarks were “in tune with the current times.”
Replying at Davos, U.S. President Donald Trump said, “Canada lives because of the United States… Remember that, Mark, next time you make your statements.”
Carney was en route home at the time of Trump’s speech, but once he was back in Canada, he fired back, “Canada doesn’t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian.”
“We can show that another way is possible, that the arc of history isn’t destined to be warped toward authoritarianism and exclusion; it can still bend toward progress and justice.”
Continuing their feud, Trump later posted on social media: “Dear Prime Minister Carney: Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time.”
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NATIONAL
Former White House Chief of Staff, Chicago Mayor and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, 66, said he wants to establish a mandatory retirement age of 75 for all three branches of the federal government. He told Politico that the restriction would also apply to him. “You can’t say ‘here’s what I want to do to change Washington – one of the things I want to do’ – but I get an exemption because I bought it beforehand.”
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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has been subpoenaed by the federal Department of Justice along with Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Walz, the state’s Attorney General Keith Ellison and St. Paul Mayor Koahly Her to testify before a Grand Jury probing whether the officials conspired to impede ICE’s immigration enforcement. Frey, ordered to appear Feb. 3 in Minneapolis, said the federal government is trying to intimidate local and state officials into not opposing its policies.
STATE & LOCAL
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) will step down Feb. 15 as co-chair of the California Legislative Caucus after describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide” earlier this month. Wiener is seeking to succeed U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) as San Francisco’s representative in Congress.
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The Sacramento Bee reports that Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget for not doing enough to solve the crises of homelessness and housing. Gabriel, who chairs the Assembly budget committee, said earlier this week, “the lack of resources for housing in the governor’s budget is impossible to ignore and it does not reflect our prior commitments or our value. We can and must do better regardless of our budget situation.”
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Stephen Cushman is San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s adviser on a hoped-for redevelopment of the downtown Civic Center, home to the San Diego City Hall; the San Diego Opera and such guest performance troupes as Broadway San Diego; Golden Hall, which has been utilized for a variety of functions, including naturalization ceremonies, a homeless shelter, and watch parties for election returns; a parking structure, and the city’s operations center.
According to a story in The San Diego Union-Tribune, Chancellor Gregory Smith of the San Diego Community College District is exploring replacing Golden Hall with a museum featuring African and international art which is now housed at Mesa College. The Prebys Foundation, meanwhile, has been exploring revitalizing the entire Civic Center. Cushman said the three entities – the community college district, the City of San Diego, and the Prebys Center have now formed an informal partnership.
Cushman is no stranger to large real estate developments. His family holdings included Grossmont Center and the Riverwalk golf course in Mission Valley, with the underlying land passed down through the generations from Adolph Levi, a San Diego pioneer who arrived in 1860. As the board chairman of the San Diego Convention Center, who pushed successfully for a union hotel, the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, to be built near the Convention Center he assured San Diego’s attractiveness to “50,000 delegates a year in the United States who will only go to a convention center that is union.” Next, he served as a commissioner for the San Diego Unified Port Commission, to which he attracted Dole to move some of its fruit Imports from Port Hueneme. Currently, he serves on the City Housing Commission.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World