U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) speaks to journalists in Jerusalem during his visit to Israel, Tuesday, June 1, 2021.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) suggested that an Israeli strike on Iran could be the most likely way to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on Monday from Jerusalem.

Three paths: While “maximum pressure” sanctions “[make] it more difficult,” Graham argued the only ways to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions are an unlikely “change of heart” by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an internal overthrow of the regime or a U.S.-supported Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “If you don’t [understand] that, you’re making a huge mistake,” Graham said. “This is never going to end short of a nuclear weapon unless somebody stops them. And those are the three ways that would stop the advance toward a nuclear weapon. The first one is one in a billion. The second one — who knows — if the Iranian people want to continue to live like this, that’s up to them. But the third one [the Israeli strike] is probably the way this movie ends.”

On deck: Graham detailed a plan to increase congressional oversight of Iran’s nuclear program that he has been developing during his trip. He said he had asked Israeli officials on a previous visit to the country in February to put together a detailed list of red lines and major concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program. The South Carolina senator said those conversations prompted him to craft legislation, tentatively titled the Iran Nuclear Weapons Monitoring Act, which will likely require a report from the administration every 120 days about Iranian weaponization efforts, fissile material, missile technology, proliferation and violations of International Atomic Energy Agency inspection regimes. The legislation will also require collaboration with U.S. allies.

In depth: “It’s a directive to our government, in consultation with our allies, to stay on top of the Iranian nuclear program,” Graham said. “And if we see areas of concern, the administration, whoever they would be, would be required to come up with an action plan. This approach, I think, is the best insurance policy to make sure that the Iranian nuclear program does not get out of hand.” Graham said the legislation is “essential” with or without a new Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In his defense: Graham also touched on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and appeared to defend President Joe Biden’s off-the-cuff comment made over the weekend that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” which set off an international firestorm. “If you’re upset with Biden calling for Putin to go — question for the French and everybody else: Are you willing as part of a negotiated settlement to provide security guarantees to Ukraine from future invasions by Russia?” he said. “If you’re not willing to do that, then I think more conflict is inevitable.”

Read the full interview here.

Joe Biden at the 2016 World Jewish Congress Herzl Award Dinner at The Pierre Hotel on November 9, 2016, in New York City.

The Biden administration is asking for $360 million in funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) in its 2023 budget request to Congress, a shift from the 2022 budget proposal that made no specific funding request for the program, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

On target: The $360 million funding level was the target level for Jewish groups and some proponents of the program on Capitol Hill this year. Congress approved $250 million in funding for the program for 2022, up from $180 million in 2021. “The Nonprofit Security Grant Program is a vital resource for faith-based communities across the country,” Robert Silvers, the Department of Homeland Security’s undersecretary for policy, told JI. “Our administration is strongly committed to growing this program, and will work with Congress to achieve our goal of $360 million in annual funding.”

On the Hill: “President Biden knows that protecting our religious spaces, like our synagogues, mosques, churches and more demands more help at the federal level,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told JI. “I already successfully pushed to double this national pot of funds in 2021, but we needed more and the president knew this, too. That is why I made the $360 million push, so that the nation and New York can tap these funds and help fortify more places of worship.”

Outside in: Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel’s vice president for government affairs, attributed the increase in part to vocal advocacy from the Jewish and other interested communities.“Because of all the advocacy, because of the statistics that have been put forward and because of, unfortunately, the [security] incidents, I think all of that sort of coalesced,” he said. “I think the administration…recognized that there had to be a significant increase in the appropriation and that led to their ask.”

Skeptic: Not every reaction from NSGP supporters on Capitol Hill has been entirely positive. “While I am pleased to see the president prioritizing funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, I am concerned that President Biden is cutting critical funding for the State Homeland Security Grant Program and Urban Area Security Initiative to do so, which could make us all less safe,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said.

Read the full story here.

Leonard Cohen performs on stage at Leeds Arena on September 7, 2013, in Leeds, England.

It is difficult to think about a present that doesn’t include the melancholy, haunting music of Leonard Cohen, the dark and sultry edges of “Hallelujah,” the words of a young man grappling with his faith in “Lover, Lover, Lover.” But that present almost didn’t exist. In October 1973, the 39-year-old singer-songwriter was living on a Greek island, mourning what he considered to be the end of his career. And then the Yom Kippur War began. It wasn’t long before Cohen found himself in Israel, where he and other wartime entertainers traveled from army base to outpost to camp to raise the spirits of disheartened fighters on the brink of catastrophic loss. “I think that, for him, our crisis here in Israel was, in some ways, a way out of his own personal crisis, which might have been a more pressing crisis for Leonard Cohen,” Matti Friedman, author of the new book Who By Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai, told Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weissin a recent interview.

Origin story: In 2008-09, Cohen staged a comeback tour to recoup some of the losses sustained after his manager — who later was sentenced to 18 months in prison for harassment — stole upwards of $5 million from the singer. The tour stopped in Tel Aviv. An Israeli newspaper covering the concert mentioned Cohen’s 1973 tour through the Sinai, sparking Friedman’s interest in a story that was nearly lost to history. “I understood that Israelis felt a deep personal connection to Cohen,” Friedman explained. “That it was beyond this, ‘Look at this cool star coming from America.’ It really felt like they know him. In some ways they feel like he’s Israeli, which is very weird. It’s not true of all Jewish artists; they don’t feel that way about Bob Dylan, for example, or Paul Simon. They do feel that about Leonard Cohen, and it had something to do, I realized, with this shared experience that they had had with this guy.”

Deep dive: Friedman set off to learn more about Cohen’s Sinai tour, clipping news articles and eventually talking to soldiers who remembered catching — or just missing, as was the case with one exhausted medic who couldn’t summon the energy to chase the music he was hearing on the base — a performance. Interviews with once-young soldiers led Friedman to one person, and then another, and then another who caught a “show” — often no more than the musicians playing for a group of several dozen exhausted young Israelis.

Never before seen: Who By Fire — originally a line from the Yom Kippur liturgy “Unetanneh Tokef” and, millennia later, used as a song title on Cohen’s first album in the post-war years — is interspersed with entries from Cohen’s 45-page manuscript recollecting his trip as well as pocket diaries he kept during the tour. The singer’s estate gave Friedman permission to read and use Cohen’s journals. The entries, largely unedited, present an account of the singer’s travels through the Sinai. “It felt a bit weird, because I’m not sure what he’d think about people seeing, you know, behind the curtain, but I had the really incredible pleasure, for someone who loves Leonard Cohen, of looking through these notebooks, for example, and seeing drafts of his songs as they come out of his head,” said Friedman. “I saw the draft of ‘Who By Fire,’ [as it’s] being written down and the draft of ‘Lover Lover,’ literally the first time it is written on paper, and words are scratched out… ‘Chelsea Hotel [#2],’ there’s a few rough fragments of ‘Chelsea Hotel’ where he is still messing around with the words. So that’s an amazing thing.”

Read the full interview here.