Why the Jewish Establishment Wants Progressives Talking About ICE Instead of Gaza

Whenever the spotlight on Israel’s actions becomes too bright, the Jewish institutional apparatus predictably shifts the national conversation toward other subjects such as immigration. By promoting aggressive pro-immigration agendas, organized Jewry provides a safe harbor for the progressive base, effectively drugging the public with endless debates over immigration policy while the Jewish occupation of Palestine proceeds without the hindrance of American scrutiny.

More importantly, Jewry achieves a dual victory throughout this process: they effectively shield Israel from the fallout of its own atrocities while simultaneously accelerating the mass migration that serves as their long-term grand strategy for demographic replacement.

The No Kings protests that swept across America in 2025 and 2026 highlighted this dynamic. A recently surfaced clip featuring William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, exposed the delicate balancing act Jewish groups have taken in light of these protests that have emerged in the wake of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Chris Menahan posted the clip on X with the observation that Daroff “says progressives being distracted by ICE is providing an opportunity for a ‘reset’ on Israel, especially with images from Gaza ‘subsiding’ on TikTok” (presumably at least partly because Larry Ellison now controls TikTok).

William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, says progressives being distracted by ICE is providing an opportunity for a “reset” on Israel, especially with images from Gaza “subsiding” on TikTok. pic.twitter.com/uRZBlR5FeK

— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) February 7, 2026

The clip comes from Lazar Focus, a Times of Israel podcast hosted by diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman. Daroff leads an umbrella group representing roughly 50 national member organizations including AIPAC, the ADL, the AJC, and the Jewish Federations. The Jerusalem Post has named him among the 50 most influential Jews worldwide. He serves as a key Washington policy player who lobbies on U.S.-Israel relations, Iran, and antisemitism.

What makes the clip remarkable is its candor. Daroff lays out a strategy that treats the Gaza war as a public relations cycle to be waited out rather than a moral reckoning that demands a serious conversation regarding U.S. foreign policy and its subservience to Jewish interests.

When asked about the emergence of young progressive Jews publicly disaffiliating from Israel, Daroff identified this “non-Zionist” movement as the thing that disturbs him most. “I don’t think we’ve lost them,” Daroff said. “I think that they’re loud, many of them are uneducated, as I talked about, the need for Jewish education to ensure that they understand their connection to the Jewish people and to the state of Israel, to the land of Israel.” Notably, Daroff argues that these young Jews are lacking proper education. The problem, in his telling, is information rather than policy.

Even more revealing was the portion of the interview where Daroff provided his assessment of American political dynamics. He argued that the recent ICE crackdowns serve a calculated political purpose. They are designed to energize the progressive coalition, which includes both Jewish leaders and their non-Jewish pets. Furthermore, these raids serve as a strategic distraction; they shift public focus away from Israeli military actions in Gaza and back toward mass migration, an issue that is much more comfortable for political allies to debate.

“The American progressive world of the moment is focused on ICE, not focused on Israel, and that gives us an opportunity,” Daroff said. “With all due deference and nods to our friends in Minnesota and those who are in that battle, it gives us an opportunity, I think, while there is this relative quiet, to reset the engagement and to try to reconnect not just with the young American Jews, but with all of America without these images clouding those images.”

Daroff’s comment about waiting for “TikTok images to subside” is equally telling. Social media coverage of the Gaza conflict transformed public perception of the war, particularly among younger Americans. Daroff’s strategy involves waiting for these images to stop circulating rather than addressing the atrocities—subsidized by U.S. taxdollars—they depicted. “I think again, though, that as the TikTok images subside and we have a new baseline, that we have an opportunity to reengage with them, to reconnect with them,” Daroff said.

The full episode is available on the Times of Israel and on YouTube.

The No Kings protests themselves illustrated these internal progressive tensions that organized Jewry has had to grapple with since October 7. Indivisible, the primary organizing force behind the mobilizations, was founded by Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, a married couple who are both Jewish. However, their political orientations place them firmly in the progressive camp rather than pro-Israel advocacy.

Greenberg has stated: “I see myself as being part of a tradition of Jews organizing for social justice, and recognizing that our own status as a minority group that has been persecuted calls on us to support others who are under attack.” In January 2024, Indivisible issued a statement calling the situation in Gaza a catastrophic crisis and demanding the Biden administration pressure Israel for an immediate ceasefire. On the one-year anniversary of October 7, 2024, Greenberg issued another statement characterizing Netanyahu’s military response as having “taken a horrendous toll on Gaza’s people.” This critique mirrors the approach often taken by J Street. While they openly rebuke the excesses of current Israeli policies, they stop short of addressing the underlying reality. They refuse to confront the system of Jewish supremacy that fundamentally sustains the occupation of Palestine.

This pattern of selective criticism serves as a convenient front for a movement that relies on institutional backing far removed from the grassroots. The reality of this patronage is made clear by the massive influx of Jewish capital from established power players like the Open Society Foundations.

George Soros’s Open Society Foundations gave Indivisible a 2-year $3 million grant in 2023 and has awarded a total of $7.61 million in grants to Indivisible between 2017 and 2023. Tom Perriello, who employed Greenberg before she co-founded Indivisible, served as executive director of Open Society Foundations’ U.S. Programs from November 2018 to July 2023, creating a documented financial link between the Soros network and the organization.

The No Kings protests blended immigration enforcement concerns with other causes, including Palestine solidarity. At various rallies, Palestinian flags appeared alongside signs protesting ICE raids. This created precisely the dynamic Daroff describes benefiting from. When progressive energy disperses across multiple causes, the focused pressure on any single issue—challenging the Israeli project in this case—diminishes.

For establishment Jewish organizations, the immigration enforcement controversy represents something close to a strategic gift. It absorbs activist bandwidth, dominates news cycles, and pushes Gaza coverage further from the center of progressive attention. Daroff essentially admits this on camera, treating it not as a coincidence but as an opportunity to be exploited.

Having the conversation focus on immigration is a much more preferable option for many Jewish leaders like Daroff, who view this as an opportunity to allow the “invade the world, invite the world” order to continue apace without issue. An easily distracted and polarized population is one that is putty in the hands of Jewish interest groups.