With more than 4,000 attendees convening in Florida, this year’s Israeli-American Council (IAC) annual summit affirmed the organization’s emergence as a major national force in American Jewish life. Earlier this year, the IAC was formally accepted into the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a milestone reflecting institutional recognition and real grassroots strength. The summit was a display of IAC’s growing role as a unifying force capable of mobilizing thousands of Jews of diverse backgrounds, denominations, and political persuasion under one roof, united around support for the American–Israel alliance.
One of the most striking features of the conference was its grounding in American national interests. The IAC is an organization made up of people who live in the United States and support for Israel was consistently articulated through the lens of American interests. Speaker after speaker said U.S. support for Israel deters external threats to U.S. interests and antisemitism. On stage, senior officials who have operated at the highest levels of U.S. decision-making, including special envoy Steve Witkoff, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, described how US–Israel cooperation advances American strategic, security, and geopolitical priorities in practice.
Steve Witkoff: Grief Turned Into Mission
At the center of that effort was Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special emissary, who spoke candidly with Australian broadcaster Erin Molan and said he never viewed his role as a job, but as a calling that reshaped his sense of purpose and made returning to a career building skyscrapers unthinkable.
Witkoff, who tragically lost his son far too young, said he belongs to “that really bad club” no parent ever wants to join. The loss, he said, shaped his approach to the hostage crisis. “For me, it was very personal,” Witkoff said, “when President Trump allowed me to take this role, it became the greatest blessing of my life, my son’s death got to mean something.”
Witkoff said he spoke daily with the hostage families, carrying their despair while privately struggling with the weight of negotiations. “On the one hand we were negotiating,” he said, “on the other hand, we were trying to make the families understand that we were hopeful. And yet, we were frustrated and discouraged, and we didn’t want to show them that.” He explained, “I feel that my boy puts his hand on my shoulder and leads me in these places,” and said, “G-d took him back at 23, but asked me through him, or him through me, to meet these wonderful families.”
He recalled the day the final group of hostages and their families came to visit the White House. President Donald Trump, he said, pulled him aside. “I saw the tears, he doesn’t like anyone to see tears,” Witkoff recalled. “and he said to me, ‘This is the greatest day I’ve ever had in the White House.’”
Witkoff also described sitting in the Situation Room during Operation Midnight Hammer, “I had the great privilege of being in the command center with the President during the 12 day War. The President, he’s a really good commander in chief. I actually asked him afterwards, ‘Where did you learn this? Did you go to war college?’ because he’s just that good. He instincts are impeccable. He understands all the different iterations.”
Turning to Iran, Witkoff said he had spoken with Iran at the President’s direction. He said, “One of the things we were concerned about were the killings that were rumored to be on the way, hangings, mass hangings, and that’s been shut down.” He credited President Trump’s leadership calling it uniquely effective. “He’s the only one in the world who has that indomitable strength that can bend people. I watched it happen, it’s quite remarkable.”
As far as Iran, Witkoff continues to favor diplomacy focused on four issues, curtailing nuclear enrichment, halting missile development, reducing nuclear material stockpiles, and ending Iran’s support for regional proxies, but warned bluntly, “The alternative is a bad one.” Asked about President Trump’s leadership, he said, “He’s the right guy to trust. He’s the right man for the job.”
General Michael “Erik” Kurilla: The Alliance That Held
While Steve Witkoff represented the emotional and diplomatic core of the U.S. response, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the recently retired commander of U.S. Central Command, who had just returned from a trip to Israel, articulated its military backbone.
Kurilla described the US–Israel relationship as one forged long before October 7, built through years of constant coordination, trust, and shared planning. That foundation, he said, allowed American and Israeli commanders to operate as “brothers in arms,” communicating daily, and at times hourly, once the war began. Kurilla said, “The United States stepped forward and showed the world what a real ally looks like”
He detailed the unprecedented military cooperation that followed, including the coordinated response to Iran’s April attack where U.S. and Israeli forces divided the defensive mission, each intercepting roughly half of the incoming missiles. “I don’t think people understand, though, just how big a deal that was that you had 160 long range suicide drones with a 50 pound warheads on them. You had 30 cruise missiles coming from Iran, you had 120 medium range ballistic missiles with up to 1,000 to 1,500 pound warheads on them, and not a single Israeli was even injured.”
Kurilla said key missions, including Operation Midnight Hammer, had been rehearsed for years, with pilots, planners, and weapons systems prepared well in advance. A critical capability used in the operation, the bunker-buster bomb which was a closely held U.S. secret, had been in development for more than 15 years. He said Israel achieved full air supremacy, with Israeli aircraft able to operate a “superhighway from Tel Aviv to Tehran.” The operation, Kurilla said, was “absolutely tremendous” and “something every military in the world should study.”
Yet Kurilla repeatedly returned to a cautionary note. Military action, he warned, must be guided by a clear strategy and defined end state. “What is the strategy, and what comes after?” he asked, stating that strength without certainty, risks creating something even worse than what it removes. “I remember when President Trump and I were talking, Steve Witkoff was in the room, and we were talking about Iran. The one comment I said, ‘If we’re ever going to take action, I want to phone a friend, and that friend is Israel because of their capabilities and the friendship that we have with them. Israel has very unique capabilities.’”
Pam Bondi: Justice Department Actions on Antisemitism
Attorney General Pam Bondi turned the lens inward, outlining how the administration is confronting antisemitism at home. Her remarks detailed a Justice Department agenda centered on enforcement, accountability, and the use of federal authority to protect Jewish Americans from violence, intimidation, and discrimination.
Bondi said the Justice Department is pursuing multiple criminal prosecutions and civil actions to combat antisemitic violence and discrimination nationwide. She cited the ongoing federal prosecution of the fatal shooting of two young Jewish adults outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., saying prosecutors will seek the death penalty. Bondi said the department has also filed civil actions under the FACE Act against violent protesters who intimidated Jewish Americans at synagogues, the first time the law has been used since its 1994 passage to protect a house of worship.
Bondi pointed to a federal hate crimes investigation into a recent synagogue arson in Mississippi and detailed civil rights enforcement against universities, including settlements with Columbia University, Northwestern University, and Cornell University, as well as an ongoing investigation into the University of California system. Bondi said the university settlements were negotiated by her civil rights chief, Harmeet Dhillon, (who was also in attendance) as well as by President Donald Trump.
She also cited a case at Florida State University in which a student was attacked for wearing an IDF T-shirt, prompting the university president to contact her office. Bondi said she coordinated with federal, state, and local authorities, whereupon the case proceeded through the legal system and the accused student was later removed from the university. “Little things are the big things,” Bondi said, “you can’t bully students because they’re Jewish and you think you’re better, that’s not going to happen under Donald Trump’s presidency.”
Influence Without Apology: Adelson and Saban
Though the IAC is not a political organization and has never positioned itself as such, one of the gathering’s most notable panels featured Miriam Adelson, a prominent supporter of Republican candidates, and Haim Saban, a leading donor to Democratic candidates, in an onstage interview with IAC chairman Shawn Evenhaim. The conversation centered on power – how it operates, how it is accessed, and why they make no apology for using it.
Haim Saban said access matters because it creates opportunities to inform policymakers who may lack basic understanding of US–Israel interests. He recalled being astonished during a conversation with a U.S. senator who, he said, had little awareness of how $3.3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel is used, or why it serves American strategic interests. That encounter, Saban said, underscored his view that in American politics access can help ensure decision-makers are better educated and informed.
Saban said, “It’s a system that we did not create. It’s a system that’s in place. It’s a legal system, and we just play within the system, and that’s it. I mean, it’s just really quite simple. If you support a politician, you, under normal circumstances should have access to be able to share opinions and try to help them see your point of view. That’s what access grants you. So I mean, those that give more have more access, and those that give less have less access. It is simple math, trust me.”
Miriam Adelson offered rare insight into quiet diplomacy at the highest levels, including personal interactions with world leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin. She recounted attending a meeting years ago with her late husband Sheldon Adelson z”l and other business leaders, during which Putin asked the couple to step aside for a private conversation and requested that they relay a message to an unnamed individual, details she declined to elaborate on.
Adelson said that after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his intelligence chief fled to Russia, she conveyed a message to Putin through Russia’s chief rabbi, Rabbi Berel Lazar. She said she reminded him of the favor he once requested of her and urged Putin to press the former Syrian intelligence chief to reveal the burial site of Israeli spy Eli Cohen, so that his remains could be returned to Israel for a proper Jewish burial. Adelson’s appeal demonstrated how personal relationships can intersect with statecraft, even years after the events in question.
Many Voices, One Message: “Am Yisrael Chai”
Over three days, the conference convened dozens of panels and breakout sessions and repeatedly returned to themes of unity and family, articulated powerfully by Elan S. Carr, CEO of IAC and Rabbi Doron Peretz, chairman of the World Zionist Organization and the Mizrahi Movement. Speaking as both a national leader and a grieving father, Rabbi Peretz reflected on the loss of his son, Captain Daniel Peretz Hy”d, who was killed defending the border near Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023, with his body taken to Gaza and returned two years later. Through that lens, he emphasized that the Jewish people are bound together as one family.
Rabbi Peretz said, “Just like Hamas did not distinguish between any Jew or any Zionist, so must we never distinguish between all types of Jews.” He reflected on the sacrifices of Israel’s soldiers for the greater Jewish family and cautioned against allowing internal divisions to eclipse the true danger facing the Jewish people. When an external enemy is present, he observed, differences are often set aside, but the real challenge comes when that threat feels less immediate and internal disagreements are mistaken for existential ones, “Sometimes we hear people and politicians and commentators talking about the other side as if they are the biggest threat to the Jewish people, but the biggest threat to the existence of the Jewish people are our enemies.”
His words served as a fitting conclusion to a gathering defined by diversity of thought but united purpose, that despite disagreements, backgrounds, or beliefs, the strength of Israel, and the Jewish people, lies in remembering that they are, ultimately, one family. “Am Yisrael Chai.”