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SIREN: “Israeli jets strike inside Syria; military site near Palmyra reportedly targeted” by Oren Liebermann and Euan McKirdy: “In the most serious clash between Israeli and Syrian forces since the start of Syria’s civil war six years ago, Israeli aircraft struck several targets in Syria overnight… The Syrian military said the strikes targeted a military site near Palmyra… In response, Syrian forces fired anti-aircraft missiles at the Israeli jets, saying they downed one aircraft and hit another. Israeli vehemently denied the assertions… “At no point was the safety of Israeli civilians or the IAF aircraft compromised,” a statement from the Israel Defense Forces said. One of the missiles was intercepted by Israel’s Arrow missile defense system, marking its first operational use.” [CNN]

DEEP DIVE: “The blow-it-all-up billionaires” by Vicky Ward: “If Trump was an unexpected victor, the Mercers were unexpected kingmakers. More established names in Republican politics, such as the Kochs and Paul Singer, had sat out the general election. But the Mercers had committed millions of dollars to a campaign that often seemed beyond salvaging… A longtime colleague, David Magerman, recalls that when Robert began working at Renaissance in 1993, he and his wife, Diana, were “grounded, sweet people.” (Magerman was suspended from Renaissance in February after making critical comments about Robert in The Wall Street Journal.) But “money changed all that,” he says. “Diana started jetting off to Europe and flying to their yacht on weekends. The girls were used to getting what they wanted.”

“Magerman, Robert’s former colleague at Renaissance, recalls him saying, in front of coworkers, words to the effect that “your value as a human being is equivalent to what you are paid. … He said that, by definition, teachers are not worth much because they aren’t paid much.” His beliefs were well-known at the firm, according to Magerman. But since Robert was so averse to publicity, his ideology wasn’t seen as a cause for concern. “None of us ever thought he would get his views out, because he only talked to his cats,” Magerman told me.” [HuffPost.Highline]

WEEKEND READ — Podhoretz the Pugilist: “Norman Podhoretz Still Picks Fights and Drops Names” by John Leland: “Mr. Podhoretz, who ran Commentary magazine from 1960 to 1995, has now outlived most of his old adversaries, including those he chronicled in his 1999 memoir “Ex-Friends: Falling Out With Allen Ginsberg, Lionel and Diana Trilling, Lillian Hellman, Hannah Arendt and Norman Mailer.” Smart, ambitious, argumentative, back-stabbing, front-stabbing, he is a living amalgam of New York ego and intellect…. His story is also one of sweeping political reversal. Born in 1930 in a modest Jewish immigrant Brooklyn home, he made his mark in liberal Manhattan, broke ranks with the friends who nourished him and became a shaper of the neoconservative movement.”

“In those years, writers attacked one another first in the pages of so-called little magazines like Partisan Review and Commentary, and then at parties where politics and art were battlefields. If the players considered themselves high-minded, Mr. Podhoretz scathingly suggested other motives. “Every morning,” he wrote in the 1967 memoir “Making It,” “a stock-market report on reputation comes out in New York. It is invisible, but those who have eyes to see can read it. Did so-and-so have dinner at Jacqueline Kennedy’s apartment last night? Up five points. Was so-and-so not invited by the Lowells to meet the latest visiting Russian poet? Down one-eighth.”

“After supporting Marco Rubio in the Republican presidential primaries, Mr. Podhoretz took a position that was not so much an endorsement of Mr. Trump as a rebuttal to conservatives who opposed him. “I was anti-anti-Trump,” he said. “I said it was a choice of evils, and he was the lesser evil. And I still think that’s true, although it might turn out that he wasn’t evil at all. He has the most conservative cabinet since Reagan, more than Reagan. So I watch what he does more than what he says.” He was not put off by Mr. Trump’s conciliatory approach to Russia, nor his support from white nationalists, whom he considered too marginal to be a real threat.” [NYTimes]

Bret Stephens: “A remarkably fair-minded tribute to the great Norman Podhoretz (who’s wrong about Trump and I will never forgive it).” [Twitter]

“Daughter diplomacy: Trudeau’s unorthodox play for Donald Trump’s approval” by Daniel Dale: “For [Justin] Trudeau, daughter diplomacy offers the prospect of a lifeline to a president who shares almost none of his principles but who often appears to value personal relationships over ideology and policy — and who appreciates a political gift… Donald Trump, not Ivanka Trump, was Trudeau’s original invitee to the play, communications director Kate Purchase said. Trump told Trudeau he couldn’t make it, Purchase said, “but suggested that perhaps Ivanka Trump could join instead.” … It is not only the president with whom Ivanka Trump might help Trudeau. Her husband, Jared Kushner, has emerged as one of the most powerful people in the country.” [TheStar] 

Trump kids, families to visit Aspen this weekend: “A large contingent of President Donald Trump’s children and grandchildren are scheduled to vacation in Aspen this weekend, sources said Thursday. The Trump family is expected to arrive in Aspen late Saturday night or early Sundaymorning, along with about 100 Secret Service agents, a source said. Another Aspen area law enforcement source said the Trump visitors to Aspen will include Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump and their families.” [DenverPost; AspenTimes]

JASON GREENBLATT’S WEEK: “On His First Visit to the Middle East, Trump’s Envoy Jason Greenblatt Surprises Everyone” by Barak Ravid: “Greenblatt’s Twitter account was the best show in town this week. Anyone following his tweets might have thought he wasn’t the U.S. envoy for the peace process, but the Energizer bunny…  Everyone on the Israeli side who met with Greenblatt this week, on both the right and the left, as well as everyone on the Palestinian side, had a positive impression…

“A senior minister who sits in the diplomatic-security cabinet said he met with Netanyahu this week and found him very worried. The reason… [was] Donald Trump. “There’s enormous pressure on him over the settlements from Trump,” the minister said. “Trump told Netanyahu, ‘Tell me what your needs are on the settlements, and what you’re willing to do to rein in construction.’ … That’s also why he isn’t going to the AIPAC conference in Washington at the end of the month,” the minister added. “He doesn’t yet have anything to bring to Trump. The feeling I got is that he’s starting to miss Obama.”” [Haaretz] 

BIBI’S MINYAN CLUB — Greenblatt‏ tweets: “Thank you Israeli PM’s office for mincha minyan and Netanyahu for davening with me so that I could say Kaddish for my mother.” [Twitter] 

KAFE KNESSET — The Missing Yarmulke — by Tal Shalev and JPost’s Lahav Harkov: Trump’s envoy Jason Greenblatt definitely won the hearts and minds of many Israelis and Palestinians, who followed his Twitter reports with great enthusiasm. But for some Haredi observers, Greenblatt’s shuttle diplomacy was overshadowed by his missing kippa, and Haredi journalists and news outlets have been freaking out over it this whole week. “People who watched the video and the pictures from the meeting with Netanyahu couldn’t resist wondering where his Kippa is,” the Kikar Hashabat website wrote this week.

“Haredim 10,” another popular website, explained that many US Orthodox businessmen give up wearing the kippa during business meetings and even gave the religious explanation for the habit, which is unusual for religious Israelis, from all denominations. “Many Jews have this habit, based on a Halacha ruling by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, who ruled that since wearing a kippa is a Hasidic custom, one can sit at work without it.” The Prime Minister’s new media advisor, Jonathan Urich, came to Greenblatt’s defense: “You can calm down. They prayed Mincha together yesterday, and had a Minyan in the cabinet room. When there is nothing wrong, you don’t have to look for people to blame.” Read today’s entire Kafe Knesset here [JewishInsider]

ON THE HILL: “Democrat Engel prepares to work with Trump on Israel” by Michael Wilner: “With all my troubles with Donald Trump and his policies, if he shows that he’s a pro-Israel president, I will praise him for it,” [Rep. Eliot] Engel said. “We don’t want Israel to be used as a political football. Presidents come and go and prime ministers come and go, [but] it is the US-Israel relationship that must remain.” … “I don’t know him, but I’ve heard good things,” Engel said of Kushner… “I would think that he would have Israel’s best interests at heart if he sits down to negotiate.” [JPost] 

INTERVIEW — Meet The Republican Congressman Who Calls for a Settlement Freeze — by Aaron Magid: In many ways, Representative Walter Jones (R-NC), is a staunch conservative… However, his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are far outside the norm for a Republican member of Congress these days. In an interview with Jewish Insider, Jones called for a “moratorium” on Israeli West Bank settlement growth. Jones was one of four Republicans who voted with 76 Democrats against House Resolution 11 in January, a measure that criticized the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)…

Jones was one of only two Republicans to sign onto a letter, signed by 113 Democrats, which “affirms” support for the two state solution. “If we just sit back, watch and complain, and nobody is making any effort to get the two sides together, I think it is wrong,” Jones explained while repeatedly using the term “Palestine.” … “I hope that this Administration will find the time over the next few months to make this the number one issue: what can we do as a nation to be a facilitator to find peace.” Read the full interview here [JewishInsider] 

HEARD AT YU — Joe Lieberman: “Ambassador Friedman Will Perform Above Expectations” — by Jacob Kornbluh: “David, who I love and think will be a great Ambassador, said some things that I totally disagreed with. And all he could do is what he did at the hearing, and that’s just to apologize,” Lieberman, who is a partner at the Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman law firm, said at a symposium hosted by the Rabbi Arthur Schneier Program for International Affairs at Yeshiva University on Wednesday. “I want to assure you that David Friedman will perform as Ambassador way above expectations.” Regarding Friedman’s apology over comments he made about J Street, ADL and others, Lieberman quipped, “I told him that I don’t think he has to go to shul on Yom Kippur this year. I though he already did his Al Chets at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”

Former Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer: “David Friedman may be a nice guy, but he is a polarizing figure. What he said about J Street is beyond acceptable, and has written off a large segment of the American Jewish community. They may not be J Street members, but they are pro-peace and pro-Israel. We are now about to send a man who doesn’t fit any criteria for serving as U.S. envoy. He doesn’t represent Americans at large. And how can he possibly represent Israeli views when those on the Left or center-left feel alienated by his nomination. It makes no sense.” [JewishInsider] 

“Ex-Sen. Lieberman Welcomes ‘Change in the White House Attitude’ on Iran” by Patrick Goodenough: “Though I will say that I was a proud supporter of Secretary Clinton in the election last year, when it comes to the question of Iran, the change from President Obama to President Trump is an enormously significant and hopeful change,” [Lieberman] told a Nowruz (Persian new year) gathering on Capitol Hill… “The change in the White House attitude, it gives us an important opportunity,” he said… I think you’ll find and already have found that the bipartisan consensus about the threat that Iran represents has returned,” he said, “and there’s a real interest in focusing in on a regime in Iran and changing what exists now.” [CNSNews] 

“Trump budget preserves aid for Israel, other countries being evaluated: State Dept.” by David Alexander: “”Our assistance to Israel is … guaranteed and that reflects obviously our strong commitment to one of our strongest partners and allies,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. “With respect to other assistance levels, foreign military assistance levels, those are still being evaluated and decisions are going to be made going forward,” Toner added, noting that treaty obligations would be a factor. The United States provides assistance to Jordan and Egypt as part of their peace treaties with Israel.” [Reuters] 

Robert Satloff‏: “In budget blueprint, only aid to Israel assured, leaving key US Mideast allies – like Egypt and Jordan – nervous.” [Twitter] • Dan Shapiro: “That should — and will — make Israel nervous, too.” [Twitter] 

TOP TALKER: “Top Trump Adviser Sebastian Gorka Denied A Report That He Belongs To A Nazi-Allied Group” by Talal Ansari and Lissandra Villa: “When BuzzFeed News reached Gorka by phone on Thursday, he stonewalled when asked about the report. “Send a request to White House press,” Gorka told BuzzFeed News. Later Thursday, in an interview with Tablet magazine, Gorka was quoted, “I have never been a member of the Vitez Rend. I have never taken an oath of loyalty to the Vitez Rend.” Gorka reportedly belongs to a “reconstitution of the original group on the State Department list… “These revelations are deeply disturbing, not least because of what they reveal about the kinds of people able to influence the president of the United States,” said US Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York.” [BuzzFeed; USAToday]

“Tale of Trump Advisor’s Nazi Ties Unravels : Sebastian Gorka Denies Reported Affiliations with Vitézi Rend” by Liel Leibovitz: “Gorka himself told me that the allegations are flat-out false. “I have never been a member of the Vitez Rend. I have never taken an oath of loyalty to the Vitez Rend. Since childhood, I have occasionally worn my father’s medal and used the ‘v.’ initial to honor his struggle against totalitarianism.” … Why didn’t Gorka simply tell this to The Forward? A source close to the White House, who was briefed on how the administration treated this story, explained things a little more to me. “These guys genuinely believed that the allegations were so blatantly false and so aggressively poorly-sourced, that no responsible journalist would ever publish them,” the source told me on the phone.” [Tablet] • Bruce Abramson, Jeff Ballabon write… “The ‘Forward’ is dead wrong, Gorka is a defender of Israel, Jews” [JPost]