In the crowded special election for a vacant House seat in northwest Florida next month, one thing is certain: None of the 10 GOP candidates carry as much baggage as the scandal-plagued former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a far-right agitator who abruptly resigned from the seat in November amid a wave of scrutiny over allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and corruption.

Gaetz, who denies the allegations, announced he was leaving Congress shortly after President-elect Donald Trump had picked him as his nominee for attorney general, and days before the House Ethics Committee was to release a damaging report about his conduct. He has since withdrawn his bid to lead the Justice Department.

A model, a comedian and a makeup influencer walk into Israel’s Foreign Ministry. No, that’s not a joke – it’s part of how Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is trying to formulate a new public diplomacy, or hasbara, strategy for Israel.

The Foreign Ministry’s budget for public diplomacy in 2025 is expected to be $150 million — over 20 times what it was before the war began in 2023.

A report from a U.S.-backed agency alleging that famine is advancing in northern Gaza was taken down on Tuesday night after facing criticism from U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew. 

Lew stated that the report, published by the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), relied on “inaccurate” information and called its publication “irresponsible.”

Lawmakers in Virginia raised varying degrees of concern about the safety of Jews in the state in statements to Jewish Insider after a George Mason University freshman was charged on Thursday evening with plotting a mass casualty attack at Israel’s consulate in New York. 

The state’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, told JI that the thwarted terrorist attack “serves as yet another wake-up call that antisemitism and the threat to Jewish students and the Jewish community in Virginia, and across America, is very real.” 

Florida State Sen. Randy Fine is seen as a heavy favorite to succeed Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) in Congress in an upcoming special election, a Florida Republican strategist told Jewish Insider.

Fine was an early entrant into the race and secured President-elect Donald Trump’s endorsement even before he announced his candidacy — a distinction that makes him a near-prohibitive favorite for the seat, GOP operative Ford O’Connell said.

Tree of Life shooter Robert Bowers, along with Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Charleston, S.C., church shooter Dylann Roof, was not included in the more than three dozen death row commutations announced on Monday by President Joe Biden in the final weeks of his presidency.

Biden announced that he will commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on death row across the U.S. A statement released by the White House said that Biden “believes that America must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder – which is why today’s actions apply to all but those cases.”

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he had tapped Elbridge Colby as undersecretary of defense for policy in his next administration, elevating a former Pentagon official whose dovish views on Iran have faced scrutiny from some pro-Israel conservatives.

In a statement, Trump described Colby as a “highly respected advocate for our America First foreign and defense policy,” saying that he “will work closely with my outstanding Secretary of Defense Nominee, Pete Hegseth, to restore our Military power, and achieve my policy of PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH,” Trump said in a statement. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and top House Republicans called on Congress to cut off federal funding to universities that target Israel in an after-action report detailing the findings of their seven-month investigation into the surge of domestic antisemitism. 

One of the 11 policy recommendations made to Congress, the White House and the universities themselves in the report, released on Tuesday, states that the House and Senate “should pass legislation removing Title IV eligibility from any university that boycotts or divests from Israel.”