The nomination of Jeremy Carl, tapped to be the assistant secretary of state for international organizations, appears bound for failure after Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) announced his opposition to Carl’s confirmation following a contentious confirmation hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning. 

Curtis and a series of Democrats questioned Carl over past antisemitic, anti-Israel and otherwise inflammatory comments that the nominee had made online and in a series of podcast appearances. All Democrats are expected to oppose the nomination.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his team refused to condemn social media posts from the co-founder of the group ‘Hot Girls for Zohran’ that boosted antisemitic and pro-Iran voices and bashed police and leading U.S. politicians.

The refusal came one day after Jewish Insider revealed Kaif Gilani — a finance professional who spearheaded a social media, merchandising and volunteer canvassing operation  supporting the mayor’s election last year — had shared conspiracy theories from a Holocaust revisionist and a video cheerleading ex-Hamas military chief and Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, along with posts insulting law enforcement and various political figures. 

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) urged the Trump administration Thursday to investigate reports that a clique of radical staffers at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene had launched an anti-Israel “working group” inside the agency.

In a letter addressed to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the upstate lawmaker decried reports that employees had met during work hours at the city bureaucracy’s Queens headquarters. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again voiced skepticism about the U.S.’ ability to reach an agreement with Iran as he departed Joint Base Andrews on Thursday, a day after his White House meeting with President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu said that his nearly three-hour meeting with Trump “mostly focused on the negotiations with Iran.”

At first glance, President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nearly three-hour meeting at the White House on Wednesday appeared to end without any clear accomplishments.

Instead of the freewheeling question-and-answer sessions with media in the Oval Office and formal press conferences that followed most of Trump and Netanyahu’s previous six meetings since Trump returned to the White House, came a laconic statement from Netanyahu’s office about Israel’s security needs and a Truth Social post from Trump that was staid by the president’s standards. 

A pair of senators and a House lawmaker will introduce bipartisan, bicameral legislation on Thursday aimed at boosting U.S.-Israeli cooperation on bilateral defense programs.

The United States-Israel Framework for Upgraded Technologies, Unified Research, and Enhanced Security Act of 2026, abbreviated to the United States-Israel FUTURES Act, will be introduced in the Senate by Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and in the House by Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX). The bill establishes a cooperative initiative focused on accelerating and expanding bilateral defense technology research, development, testing and evaluation projects, as well as supporting industrial cooperation. 

Jason Friedman, a prominent real estate developer and longtime leader in the Jewish United Fund, Chicago’s Jewish federation, is making waves in a crowded primary for Congress in Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, long represented by retiring Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL).

Friedman is facing off against candidates including Davis’ preferred successor, state Rep. LaShawn Ford; Kina Collins, a Justice Democrats-backed third-time candidate with an anti-Israel record; attorney Reed Showalter, also running on an anti-Israel platform; and Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, who previously ran for the seat as a strong supporter of Israel.

Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) called on Qatar to extradite Hamas operative Khaled Mashaal to the U.S., telling Jewish Insider on Wednesday that the leader has the “blood of Americans on his hands.”

Mashaal, who is under U.S. indictment on terrorism-related charges, appeared this past weekend at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, where he rejected the U.N. Security Council-backed plan for Gaza — a move that could further complicate U.S. efforts to advance Phase 2 of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace initiative.