Pro-Israel students returned to Columbia University from spring break on Monday cautiously optimistic that ongoing negotiations between university leaders and the Trump administration would herald an end to the antisemitic demonstrations that have roiled the campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. 

Instead, students were greeted with familiar protests and disruptions. Dozens of masked demonstrators overtook campus, hanging a large “Free Palestine” sign from a building and chanting so loudly it could be heard from inside classrooms. 

Vice President J.D. Vance expressed deep reservations about the U.S. conducting strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen earlier this month in a private group chat with other senior administration officials, according to a bombshell report by The Atlantic.

Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, reported on Monday that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz had inadvertently added him to a group chat on Signal, an encrypted messaging application, with Vance and numerous Cabinet-level officials. Goldberg reported that Vance told the group chat, which debated and detailed the Trump administration’s plans to launch the strikes, that he thought they should hold off on the mission.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and a Democratic challenger, Beth Davidson, traded barbs last week, with Lawler accusing Davidson, who is Jewish, of turning a blind eye to antisemitism and Davidson accusing Lawler of stoking antisemitism against her.

The back-and-forth began when Lawler posted photos from a rally Davidson addressed over the weekend, including a poster showing Lawler, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) depicted as marionettes alongside the AIPAC logo — an antisemitic trope.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was awakened last Thursday morning by an announcement made through his Jerusalem hotel’s intercom system, alerting guests to an incoming ballistic missile attack by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

“I explained to my wife, and I said, ‘Well, this is the kind of reality of Israel, where they have these things,’” Fetterman told reporters in Jerusalem hours later.

Representing one of the most heavily Jewish congressional districts in America — California’s 30th, which encompasses Hollywood, Burbank and Glendale — freshman House Democrat Laura Friedman has made the issue of antisemitism a priority in her political life. 

As a legislator in the California Statehouse, she and her fellow Jewish caucus members had supported establishing an ethnic studies program, and later fought back against efforts to include antisemitic material in it, working with other identity caucuses in the state Legislature. And she authored a bill, which passed, requiring Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs to include education on antisemitism and the Jewish experience.

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, suggested to Tucker Carlson in a new episode of Carlson’s podcast on Friday that Hamas could end up being “involved politically” in Gaza if and when the terrorist group demilitarizes.

Witkoff made the comments while offering his assessment of what Hamas is seeking out of negotiations to end the war in Gaza, which he argued was important to understand in order to reach a deal to stop the fighting. Carlson, who began inviting guests onto his program who espouse antisemitic conspiracy theories after growing critical of Israel’s handling of its war with Hamas, asked Witkoff to explain Israel’s long-term vision for achieving peace in the region.

A bipartisan group of 79 House members wrote to the Trump administration on Friday seeking answers about the pause in funding disbursements for a program that provides security grants to vulnerable nonprofits, one of many grant programs affected by an across-the-board funding freeze at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The lawmakers, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), called it “critical” for all institutions that have been awarded a grant from the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to receive their funds. 

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers will reintroduce legislation on Friday reauthorizing the Binational Industrial Research and Development Energy program, an initiative aimed at boosting the energy partnership between the U.S. and Israel, Jewish Insider has learned.

Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Buddy Carter (R-GA), Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Joe Wilson (R-SC) will reintroduce the BIRD Energy and U.S.-Israel Energy Center Reauthorization Act during Friday’s pro forma session. The legislation “extends and expands the successful U.S.-Israel energy partnership through 2034, ensuring continued collaboration on clean energy innovation, energy security, and economic growth in both nations,” according to a release set to go out Friday.