The mass protests across Iran erupted just over two weeks ago — the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Palm Beach, Fla., to meet with President Donald Trump.

The big question as Netanyahu and Trump met was whether the president would give Israel a green light to strike Iran as it reconstituted its ballistic missile program at a pace that raised major concerns in Jerusalem. Trump’s response was a resounding yes, adding that if Iran would start rebuilding its nuclear program, the answer would be yes and “fast.” 

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed winding down U.S. military aid late last year, President Donald Trump was bewildered and did not immediately support the move, two sources familiar with the matter told Jewish Insider. 

Since then, Netanyahu has announced his intentions to move ahead with the plan anyway.

The finalized 2026 funding package for the State Department, released Sunday, leverages a portion of the U.S.’ contributions to the United Nations and its agencies to push for changes in what the U.S. has said is the institution’s anti-Israel bias and antisemitism.

The bill withholds 10% of the U.S. contribution for the U.N. or any U.N. agency until the State Department confirms to Congress that the agency is “taking credible steps to combat anti-Israel bias,” putting measures in place to inform donors of when funds have been diverted or destroyed, “effectively vet[ting]” staff for ties to terrorism and taking steps to address antisemitism, among a variety of other anticorruption and accountability measures.

Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, an Irish husband-and-wife playwright team, view theater as a way to correct the record. For these conservative artists, their creative mission is to fight liberal orthodoxies with what they deem to be a dose of reality. Their first production, taking a revisionist look at the 2014 killing of Black teenager Michael Brown by a white Missouri police officer, earned national media coverage — and sharp criticism, including from some cast members who quit. 

McAleer and McElhinney don’t see their latest production as conservative, or political at all, though they fear it will still garner left-wing opprobrium. Titled “​​October 7: In Their Own Words,” the play offers an unvarnished look at the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas in Israel in 2023, told through the testimonies of Oct. 7 survivors. It premiered in New York in 2024 during a six-week run off-Broadway and will be performed at the Kennedy Center for one night this month, on Jan. 28. 

When the Kennedy Center unveiled the Israeli Lounge in 1971, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) offered soaring remarks about the importance of the small reception room, which had been designed and constructed at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir as a gift to the United States.

Kennedy called the lounge — designed by Israeli architect Raphael Blumenfeld, who also designed the interior of the Israeli Knesset, and filled with original creations by Israeli artists — a “magnificent room” that could bring “the U.S. and Israel closer together, and all humanity together.” 

California state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat running in a crowded primary to replace retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), has spent the last week navigating the political fallout of a Gaza-related exchange at a candidate forum that lasted no more than 30 seconds but has since gone viral in progressive Bay Area political circles.

All three candidates who appeared at the forum last week — Wiener, San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Connie Chan, and Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — were asked if they believed Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, by lifting a “yes” or “no” placard. The other two said yes; Wiener did not answer at all. 

Former Obama administration officials and Crooked Media hosts Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Ben Rhodes are hosting a fundraiser in Hollywood, Calif., on Thursday for Abdul El-Sayed, a far-left, anti-Israel candidate running in the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan.

El-Sayed, a physician and former director of the Wayne County Department of Health, has made his criticisms of Israel a centerpiece of his campaign, criticizing other candidates in the race as being insufficiently hostile to the Jewish state.

Former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) announced Monday that she’s entering the Senate race against Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) in Alaska, giving Democrats an outside chance of picking up the red-state Senate seat.

Peltola, the first Alaska Native elected to Congress, served for just over one term in the House from 2022 until she lost reelection in 2024, filling the final few months of former Rep. Don Young’s (R-AK) term after he died in office and winning a full term in the November 2022 election. Peltola is the the most recent Democrat to win statewide office in Alaska, and benefited in her House races from the state’s new ranked-choice voting system.